BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2369
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Date of Hearing: April 14, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2369 (Block) - As Introduced: February 19, 2010
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:7-0
(Consent)
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill repeals the 2011 sunset on provisions allowing
absentee voters temporarily living outside the United States to
return their ballots to elections officials by facsimile
transmission.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible fiscal impact. It is not likely that counties would
submit a reimbursement claim for any minor additional costs
associated with counting faxed overseas ballots.
COMMENTS
Background and Purpose . AB 2941 (Bates)/Chapter 821 of 2004,
permitted special absentee voters temporarily living outside the
U.S. to return their ballots by facsimile transmission. AB
2941. AB 2786 (Salas)/Chapter 252 of 2008 extended the sunset
date for this procedure to January 1, 2011. The original
legislation required the Secretary of State (SOS) to report by
December 31, 2008 on the benefits and problems of allowing
voters to return ballots by fax and on the number of ballots
returned by fax.
The SOS reported that, for the November 2008 General Election,
11,997 ballots were returned by fax and, of those, 875 were
rejected and were not counted. The most common reasons for
rejection were the failure on the part of the voter to forward
or sign the voter oath and poor facsimile quality.
Ten counties experienced a substantial increase in the number of
AB 2369
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special absentee voters and two of those counties reported that
additional processing time was necessary for duplicating ballots
due the quality of the facsimile transmissions. Only one county
(Santa Clara) indicated the process actually delayed counting
the ballots because every faxed ballot required duplication. No
counties recommended discontinuing this practice, and many
military members were reportedly grateful that this method of
voting was available and expressed their appreciation to county
election officials, who are in support of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081