BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
970 (Corbett)
Hearing Date: 04/26/2010 Amended: 03/11/2010
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 3-2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 970 creates a pilot program to require the
establishment of preelection day polling places on four
university campuses for use during at least one general election
until 2016 as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Preelection polling ------potentially in
excess of $50
for each general election------ General*
SOS report
--------------unknown------------------ General
*State Mandated Local Program
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to
the Suspense file.
SB 970 establishes a pilot program of polling places on four
college campuses, however, extending this program statewide to
possibly all thirty three campuses would result in costs of
several hundred thousand dollars in reimbursable mandate costs
paid from the General Fund. There are currently ten UC
campuses, and 23 CSU campuses, although it is likely not all
would participate in this program.
SB 970 requires the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the
county elections officials, to establish preelection day voting
polling places on four college campuses as follows: a) two
campuses within the UC system, with at least 20,000 registered
students, and b) two campuses within the CSU system that have at
least 13,000 registered students.
The preelection day voting polling places shall be open from 7
a.m. until 8 p.m. during the five business days prior to the
date of the election, and on the day of the election.
Under current law, counties are allowed to establish satellite
polling places if they choose, and there is no reporting
requirement involved. Under the provisions of
SB 970, each county elections official who has a preelection day
voting polling place within his or her jurisdiction must report
to the Legislature and the Secretary of State within six months
following the election on the following statistics: a) the
cost of a preelection day voting polling place, b) the turnout
of voters, and c) any known problems relating to the preelection
day voting. The Secretary of State will compile this reported
information and, within eight months following the election,
report to the Legislature regarding the ability to expand the
pilot program to other college campuses.
SB 970 (Corbett)
Page 2
Under current law, elections officials are required to designate
polling places in each precinct within their jurisdiction to
serve a maximum of 1,000 voters. Elections officials have the
discretion of establishing satellite voting locations at places
such as schools and other public buildings.
Prior experience in conducting polling places on college
campuses has had both positive and negative results. For
instance, colleges can readily provide student polling place
workers, are easy to access under ADA compliance laws, and they
provide a convenient place to vote for students with busy
schedules and limited transportation. However, these polling
places often result in a large number of provisional ballots
being cast because many students are either not registered to
vote, or they have been registered at their "home" county.
Misunderstanding of elections procedures occur since students
would not be able to return vote-by-mail ballots from their
"home" county to the college voting place. Large numbers of
paper ballots would have to be taken to the campus polling
places since touch screen voting would not be allowed. For
example, for the June 2010 election San Diego County has 1,449
precincts with ballots printed in four languages. SB 970 would
necessitate that county having to transport and secure 4,796
different paper ballot types to the college campus for the
purpose of supplying sufficient ballots for the five day
preelection polling place. In addition, campuses provide very
limited parking spaces for nonstudent voters - and the spaces
most often are accompanied with a fee. Counties report that
storing sensitive precinct materials securely is sometimes
problematic at places other than the office of the elections
official.
Staff notes that SB 970 requires the establishment of
preelection day voting polling places for at least one general
election from January 1, 2011, but prior to December 31, 2016.
In the Elections code, the definition of "general" election
means "any statewide election held on a regular election date",
which includes both primary and November statewide general
elections.