BILL ANALYSIS
SB 970
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Date of Hearing: June 22, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 970 (Corbett) - As Amended: June 14, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 22-13
SUBJECT : Preelection day voting.
SUMMARY : Permits preelection day polling places to be
established on two college campuses in the state, subject to
certain conditions. Specifically, this bill :
1)Permits the Secretary of State (SOS), in conjunction with
county elections officials, the University of California (UC),
and the California State University (CSU), to establish
preelection day polling places on two college campuses in the
state for at least one general election held between January
1, 2011 and December 31, 2016. Requires one of the college
campuses to be a campus within the UC system with at least
20,000 registered students, and one of the college campuses to
be a campus within the CSU system with at least 13,000
registered students.
2)Prohibits preelection day voting from taking place without the
voluntary consent of the local elections official within whose
jurisdiction the polling place would be located.
3)Requires each college campus selected to be a preelection day
polling place to serve as a polling place for any precinct in
the county's jurisdiction.
4)Requires a preelection day polling place established pursuant
to this bill to be open during the five business days prior to
the date of the election. Provides that provisions of
existing law that generally apply to polling places that are
open on election day shall also apply to any preelection day
polling place under this bill, except for the requirement that
the polling place be open from 7 AM to 8 PM on the day of the
election.
5)Prohibits a preelection day polling place from being
established pursuant to this bill for any election other than
a general election.
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6)Requires each county elections official who has a preelection
day polling place within his or her jurisdiction pursuant to
this bill to report to the Legislature and the SOS regarding
the election within six months after the date of the election.
Requires the report to include statistics regarding the cost
of the preelection day polling place, the turnout of voters at
the preelection day polling place, and any problems with
preelection day polling place voting that is made known to the
elections official. Requires the SOS, after receiving these
reports from county elections officials but no later than
eight months after the election, to report to the Legislature
regarding an assessment of early voting on college campuses by
examining participation in preelection day voting on college
campuses as well as the costs to the state for implementing
the provisions of this bill.
7)Contains various findings and declarations.
8)Contains a December 31, 2016 sunset date.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Permits a voter to cast his or her ballot at the office of the
elections official prior to the close of polls on election day
using a vote by mail (VBM) ballot.
2)Permits elections officials to establish satellite voting
locations where voters may cast ballots prior to election day
using a VBM ballot. Permits such VBM ballots to be cast on
electronic voting devices, if the elections official utilizes
such devices.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
SB 970 expands accessibility for the electorate. Students,
who often may register for the first time with their
college campus address or who may have re-registered as a
part of a voter registration drive, will now have access to
a polling place over 5 days before an election. New
students who participate re-register to vote with their new
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campus address, often encouraged by student associations on
campus, may find polling places unfamiliar. A central
voting location on campus-familiar to students, faculty,
and staff-will increase accessibility for students to vote
on Election Day.
Carlo De La Cruz, a recent student at UC Berkeley who was
also Academic Affairs Vice President in 2008-2009, says
that the Associated Students of the University of
California registered 10,000 students at UC Berkeley. De La
Cruz said that students registered with their campus
address so they could participate in local elections.
Lyell Sakaue, a recent student at UC Berkeley who was ASUC
Senator in 2008-2009, said that student organizers in
student government encouraged students to vote at polling
places on campus on Election Day.
This bill seeks to enact policy that responds to the
current desire for early voting among students and for
those student governments that encourage their students to
vote at a polling place on campus. Allowing 5 days before
Election Day for students to vote on campus aligns to
current practice of having students vote on campus.
Second, early voting often costs less than traditional,
Election Day polling places. Studies show that early voting
provided counties 24% to 30% in savings of running an
election.
Third, research done by the New American Foundation
demonstrates that the earlier a person "participates in the
electoral process," the more likely the person will be a
life-long voter.
The second part of the bill asks that information be
collected so policy makers can learn about the impact of
early voting. Given the success of early voting in other
states, we do not know how much an early voting project in
this article would cost. The report that would be submitted
would allow for a better understanding of costs to manage
early voting, rather than abstract figures currently
available. An assessment of whether early voting could be
sustainable is also a part of this report to ensure that
policy makers have information to form policy.
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2)Early Voting Already Permitted : Notwithstanding the author's
stated desire to assess the desirability of offering early
voting, it should be noted that existing state law already
permits elections officials to establish early voting
locations, and some counties already do so. Nonetheless, it
is still relatively uncommon for elections officials to offer
early voting at any location other than the office of the
elections official, in large part due to logistical hurdles
that make it difficult for elections officials to operate
satellite early voting locations. For instance, it can be
particularly challenging for elections officials to ensure
that they have the ability to provide the correct ballot to
any registered voter in the county who shows up at an early
voting location, since there can be hundreds of different
ballot types in a county.
Additionally, it should be noted that existing law permits
elections officials to locate polling places on college and
university campuses if the elections official determines such
a placement is desirable and if the official can make
appropriate arrangements with school officials.
Because this bill is permissive, and elections officials already
have the ability to offer early voting on college campuses if
they choose to do so, the need for this bill is unclear.
3)Election Day Procedures May Not Be Appropriate : This bill
requires the early voting sites that are established on
college campuses to comply with most of the requirements that
apply to polling places on election day, though this bill does
specifically exempt those early voting sites from the
requirement that polling places be open between 7 AM and 8 PM
on election day. Many of the other requirements that apply to
polling places, however, may cause logistical problems for
elections officials if those requirements are applied to early
voting sites established under this bill.
For instance, Section 14202 of the Elections Code requires an
index of all voters in the precinct to be posted at the
polling place. It is unclear how this requirement would apply
at an early voting site, but if it is interpreted to require a
posting of an index of all the voters in the county, such a
requirement could cause logistical problems. Similarly,
Section 14201 of the Elections Code requires the precinct
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board to post a facsimile copy of a ballot with the ballot
measures and ballot instructions printed in Spanish or in
other languages under certain circumstances. However, it is
unclear whether it would be feasible to have a facsimile copy
of every ballot type in a county posted at an early voting
location established under this bill.
To avoid these logistical problems, committee staff recommends
amendments to delete the provisions of this bill that require
early voting sites to comply with the procedures established
for polling places, and instead to specify that the early
voting sites will be considered satellite voting locations
pursuant to Section 3018 of the Elections Code.
4)UC and CSU Only : This bill calls for early voting sites to be
established at two locations - one on a UC campus, and one on
a CSU campus. Given the author's desire to have this bill
serve as a means to assess the desirability of offering early
voting to students, it may be desirable to include an early
voting site at a community college campus. Because the
California Community Colleges serve more than four times as
many students as the UC and CSU systems combined, including a
community college campus as an early voting site under this
bill may result in a more complete assessment of the
desirability of offering early voting on college campuses. As
such, the author and the committee may wish to consider
amending this bill to provide for an early voting site at a
third location-a community college campus with at least 10,000
registered students.
5)Eligible Campuses : The provisions of this bill call for one
early voting site to be located on a campus within the UC
system with at least 20,000 registered students, and for the
other early voting site to be located on a campus within the
CSU system with at least 13,000 registered students. Based on
the most recent information available, UC campuses in
Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa
Barbara all have more than 20,000 registered students. CSU
campuses in Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno,
Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona,
Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San
Jose, and San Luis Obispo all have more than 13,000 registered
students.
6)Concerns Expressed : Secretary of State Debra Bowen and the
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California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
(CACEO) both have expressed concerns with the provisions of
this bill, though neither Secretary Bowen nor CACEO have taken
an official position on this bill. Among the concerns raised
are the following:
Students who are registered at their out-of-county
home will not have their ballots counted if they attempt
to vote at the on-campus early voting site.
Elections officials would be required to have
voluminous amounts of paper ballots available at the
early voting site to ensure that they could provide the
correct ballot to each voter.
Segregating ballots cast at an early voting site by
precinct so that results can be tabulated by precinct, as
is required by existing law, would be difficult or
impossible for many counties.
Keeping ballots, rosters, and other materials secure
over a five day period would be difficult, costly, and
could jeopardize the outcome of the election.
Tracking voters from outside of the immediate
precinct would require automated equipment that counties
don't have, and there would be no way to prevent a voter
from voting at the early voting site and at their home
precinct on election day.
This bill may discourage election officials from
establishing election day polling places on college
campuses if elections officials feel that they will have
to comply with the conditions of this bill.
1)Previous Legislation : AB 3024 (Wolk) of 2006 would have
authorized Solano County to conduct a pilot project whereby
the county elections official would establish vote centers in
lieu of polling places in each precinct. AB 3024 was vetoed
by Governor Schwarzenegger, who expressed concern that the
vote center concept could reduce the number of voting
locations by 80 percent, thereby increasing the distance that
voters would have to travel in order to vote. The Governor
further expressed concern that this burden would fall
disproportionately on the poor, disabled, and elderly.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Associated Students of San Diego State University
California Common Cause
California State Student Association
California Teachers Association
California Young Democrats
Los Angeles County Democratic Party
New America Foundation
OCA Orange County
San Francisco Young Democrats
UAW Local 2865
University of California
University of California Student Association
Opposition
Department of Finance
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094