BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 387
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   July 1, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                   SB 387 (Hancock) - As Amended:  March 31, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires a ballot containing extraneous marks or  
          personal information to nevertheless be counted instead of being  
          void.  Specifically, this bill:

          1)Deletes the instruction to voters that distinguishing marks  
            make a ballot void and instead instructs voters that marking a  
            ballot outside the designated spaces may compromise the  
            secrecy of the ballot.

          2)Stipulates that no voter shall place personal information, as  
            specified, on a ballot, and stipulates that including such  
            personal information shall not render a ballot void as is  
            currently the case.

          3)Requires that, for ballots containing personal information, a  
            duplicate ballot shall be prepared-similar to existing  
            procedures for ballots that are torn, bent or mutilated-and  
            tabulated.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor state reimbursable costs for county elections officials to  
          modify voter instructions, and to duplicate and tabulate, rather  
          than void, ballots inappropriately marked with personal  
          information.

           COMMENTS 

           Purpose  .  Prior to the advent of voting systems that use an  
          automated tabulation component, paper ballots were routinely  
          counted by hand.  If the elections official who was  








                                                                  SB 387
                                                                  Page  2

          hand-counting those ballots was compliant, vote-buying could  
          occur if a voter made an identifying mark on his or her ballot.   
          In order to address this possibility, the law provided that any  
          distinguishing marks or erasures would render a ballot void.   
          According to the sponsor (Secretary of State), cases of "vote  
          selling" and individuals marking a ballot to indicate they've  
          voted a particular way is extremely rare to nonexistent, while  
          many ballots are currently rejected for extraneous, often  
          inadvertent marks made by a voter.  With the increased use of  
          optically scanned paper ballots requiring the voter to mark the  
          ballot with an ordinary ink pen, it is common for voters to  
          scribble on the ballot to ensure that the ink in the pen is  
          flowing, or they simply and innocently doodle on the ballot  
          while deciding how to vote.

          According to the author's office, voters should not be  
          disenfranchised for making harmless, extraneous marks on a paper  
          ballot.  Concerns over vote buying in this fashion are no longer  
          legitimate.  Ballots that contain personal information should  
          also be remade and not be rejected.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081