BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 211|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 211
Author: Simitian (D), et al
Amended: 8/2/10
Vote: 21
PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-25, 06/24/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Elections
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of
the bill relating to the County of Santa Cruz.
This bill now revises procedures for holding special
elections to fill vacancies in the California congressional
delegation when a large number of vacancies occur in
Congress.
ANALYSIS : AB 2760 (Simitian), Chapter 658, Statutes of
2002, which was enacted in response to the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks, established procedures for
expedited special elections to fill vacancies in
congressional offices caused by a natural or man-made
catastrophe. Under the provisions of AB 2760, if at least
one-fourth of the seats in the U.S. House of
Representatives or at least one-fourth of the seats in the
California congressional delegation became vacant due to a
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natural or man-made catastrophe, the Governor must issue an
election proclamation to schedule a special election for
any vacant seat in the California congressional delegation
within seven days, and any such special election must be
held not later than 63 days after the issuance of the
proclamation. Under these circumstances, no special
primary election is held; the special election is a
winner-take-all election in which the candidate who
receives the plurality of votes is elected, regardless of
the percentage of the vote that candidate receives.
Subsequent to California's approval of AB 2760, the federal
government enacted the Continuity in Representation Act as
part of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006
(H.R. 2985 of the 109th Congress). The provisions of the
Continuity in Representation Act were similar to the
provisions of AB 2760, but differed on a few key details.
For instance, while the expedited special election process
is triggered under AB 2760 when one-fourth of the seats in
the U.S. House of Representatives become vacant (109 seats
in the current 435-seat House), the Continuity in
Representation Act requires expedited special elections to
be held whenever more than 100 seats become vacant.
Additionally, while AB 2760 allows an expedited special
election to be held up to 70 days after a catastrophe
occurs (seven days for the Governor to issue an election
proclamation, and up to an additional 63 days from that
time until the election), the Continuity in Representation
Act requires special elections to be held within 49 days,
except in certain limited circumstances. This bill makes
numerous changes to the provisions of state law that were
originally enacted by AB 2760 in order to conform to the
Continuity in Representation Act.
This bill:
1.Reduces, from one-fourth of the seats to 101 seats, the
number of vacancies that must occur in the U.S. House of
Representatives to trigger an expedited special election
schedule for filling any vacancy in the California
congressional delegation.
2.Provides that if an expedited special election schedule
is triggered due to vacancies in at least 101 seats in
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the U.S. House of Representatives, the special elections
to fill those vacancies shall be held within 49 days
following the announcement of the vacancy by the Speaker
of the U.S. House of Representatives. Requires the
Governor to issue a proclamation calling the election
within one day of the announcement of the vacancy by the
Speaker. Provides that no special election shall be
conducted in these circumstances if either of the
following is scheduled to occur within 75 days of the
date of the announcement of the vacancy by the Speaker:
A. A regularly scheduled general election for the
vacant office; or
B. A special election for the vacant office,
conducted pursuant to a proclamation issued by the
Governor prior to the date on which the Speaker
announced the vacancy.
3.Provides that if an expedited special election schedule
is triggered due to vacancies in at least one-fourth of
the California Congressional delegation, but less than
101 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the
special elections to fill those vacancies shall be held
on a Tuesday not more than 49 days following the issuance
of an election proclamation by the Governor. Permits a
special election held under these circumstances to be
conducted within 75 days following the proclamation in
order that the special election may be consolidated with
the next regularly scheduled statewide election or local
election occurring wholly or partially within the same
territory in which the vacancy exists, provided that the
voters eligible to vote in the local election comprise at
least 50 percent of all the voters eligible to vote on
the vacancy.
4.Makes minor adjustments to the deadlines for a candidate
to file for office and for a voter to request a
vote-by-mail ballot for a special election held under an
expedited schedule as described above.
5.Allows a VBM ballot cast by a U.S. citizen who is
residing overseas to be counted if it arrives up to 45
days after the date on which the election official
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transmitted the ballot to the voter, instead of by the
close of the polls on election day. Allows the Secretary
of State to extend deadlines relating to canvassing and
announcement of election results as necessary to ensure
that VBM ballots cast by U.S. citizens who are residing
overseas are counted.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, an
event triggering the need for a special expedited election
is very unlikely to occur, and the provisions of this bill,
by reducing certain timeframes in current state law (to
conform with the federal law) regarding the conduct of such
an election, would increase costs to local elections
officials by an incremental amount. The additional cost is
unknown, but if only $3,000 per county, on average, would
exceed $150,000.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De
Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Galgiani, Gatto, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jones, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
Monning, Nava, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torres, Torrico, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Adams, Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Cook,
DeVore, Fletcher, Gaines, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman,
Harkey, Jeffries, Knight, Logue, Miller, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, Norby, Silva, Smyth, Audra Strickland,
Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bass, Tom Berryhill, Conway, Fuller,
Vacancy
DLW:cm 8/17/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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