BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    






               SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND  
                           CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
                          Senator Loni Hancock, Chair


          BILL NO:   SB 817             HEARING DATE:  4/21/09
          AUTHOR:    ER&CA Comm.        ANALYSIS BY:  Frances Tibon  
          Estoista
          AMENDED:   AS INTRODUCED
          FISCAL:    NO
          
                                     SUBJECT
           
          Elections: special vote by mail voter

                                   DESCRIPTION  
          
           Existing law  authorizes a "vote by mail voter" to cast his  
          or her ballot by mail. Existing law also authorizes members  
          of the Armed Forces, their spouses and dependents; a United  
          States citizen temporarily residing outside the country;  
          and crew members of a United States merchant vessel to cast  
          their votes as "special absentee voters."  

           This bill  would change the term for these voters from  
          "special absentee voters" to "special vote by mail voters."  
           
                                    BACKGROUND  
          
          SB 817 is one of the committee's annual omnibus bills that  
          makes minor corrections to multiple erroneous code  
          references and also makes several technical and conforming  
          changes.

                                     COMMENTS  
          
            1. Prior legislation  :  One of the provisions contained in  
             AB 1243 (Karnette), Chapter 508, Statutes of 2007  
             changed terms relating to "absentee voter" and  
             "permanent absentee voter" ballots by replacing with the  
             terms "vote by mail" and "permanent vote by mail,"  
             respectively.  This bill cleans up several erroneous  
             references that were not corrected in AB 1243.

           2. Each year the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and  
             Constitutional Amendments Committee introduces omnibus  









             legislation to make various non-controversial changes to  
             the Elections Code.  Assuming this measure is approved  
             by the committee, other technical changes to the  
             Elections Code may be added to the bill.  As with all  
             omnibus measures, any provision that generates any  
             opposition will be removed from the bill.




































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                                    POSITIONS  
          
          Sponsor: Author

           Support: None received

           Oppose:  None received



































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