BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2023
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Date of Hearing: May 5, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2023 (Saldana) - As Amended: April 27, 2010
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the Secretary of State (SOS) to conduct a
voluntary pilot program in five or more counties evaluating the
use of post-canvas "risk-limiting" audits of election results.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "risk-limiting audit" as a hand tally of votes in one
or more "audit units" (precinct, set of ballots, or a single
ballot) that continues in additional audit units until there
is strong statistical evidence that the electoral outcome is
correct. If counting additional audit units does not provide
strong statistical evidence the electoral outcome is correct,
the audit continues until there has been a full manual tally
to determine the correct electoral outcome of the audited
contest.
2)Requires each county that wishes to participate in the pilot
program to conduct a post-canvas risk-limiting audit, as
specified, of one or more election contests during 2011.
3)Requires the SOS, by March 1, 2012, to report to the
Legislature on the effectiveness and efficiency of the
risk-limiting audits, including a comparison of costs with the
one percent manual tallies required under current law.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor absorbable costs to the SOS, which will utilize
resources already devoted to the post election manual tally to
oversee the pilot program and provide the evaluation report.
2)Any costs to counties would be non-reimbursable, as
AB 2023
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participation in the pilot is voluntary. To the extent that
risk-limiting audits are deemed cost-effective and replace the
one percent tally, counties would realize ongoing savings.
COMMENTS
1)Background . California law requires elections officials in
counties that use voting systems to tabulate ballots to
manually tally the ballots cast in one percent of the
precincts, as a check to ensure voting system accuracy.
Although provisions governing the one percent manual tally
have been updated to reflect changes in voting technology and
to provide additional public notice and reporting
requirements, the one percent requirement has not
significantly changed since first enacted in 1965.
2)Purpose . In 2007, the SOS established a Post-Election Audit
Standards Working Group, which published recommendations for
how California can improve its elections auditing process.
According to the author, the pilot program proposed in AB
2023, which is sponsored by the Secretary, implements many of
the working group's recommendations.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081