BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: SB 994 HEARING DATE:4/20/10
AUTHOR: PRICE ANALYSIS BY:Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Elections: payment of expenses
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires all expenses authorized and
necessarily incurred in the preparation for, and conduct
of, elections to be paid from the county treasuries, except
that when an election is called by the governing body of a
city the expenses shall be paid from the treasury of the
city.
This bill requires that all expenses authorized and
necessarily incurred in the preparation for and conduct of
elections proclaimed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in
the office of State Senator, or Assembly Member, or to fill
a vacancy in the office of United States Senator or
Representative in Congress, be paid by the state.
BACKGROUND
In California, election law requires any vacancy in a state
legislative or congressional office to be filled by a
special primary and, if needed, a special run-off election.
Since 2005, 14 vacancy elections to fill unexpired
legislative terms have been called, resulting in 24
primaries and runoffs. (Though the argument can rightly be
made that this phenomenon is a testament to a healthy and
participatory democracy, the fact is these elections are
characterized by extremely low voter turnout and
disproportionately high costs.)
Since 1993, the state has reimbursed counties for the costs
of special elections held to fill vacancies in the
Assembly, Senate and Congress. However, the provision of
state law that requires the state to reimburse counties for
the costs of special vacancy elections expired January 1,
2008.
A Little Special Election History . According to the
Secretary of State:
In the last 20 years, there have been 96 special
primary and general elections to fill vacant seats in
the Assembly, Senate and Congress in California, an
average of 4.8 per year.
The highest voter turnout for a special election that
did not coincide with an already scheduled statewide
election was 52.2 percent in 1998 when Lois Capps was
elected to fill a vacancy in the 22nd Congressional
District.
In 2009, the voter turnout in the special elections to
fill the vacancies in Senate District 26 and Assembly
District 51 garnered the lowest voter turnout in the
last 20 years, when 7.9 percent of the electorate
turned out to vote in each election.
In the January 12, 2010 Special General Election in the
72nd Assembly District, 15.6 percent of voters turned
out to vote, and 81 percent of voters voted by mail.
The average voter turnout in special elections since
1990 is 24.7 percent.
The most special legislative and congressional
elections in a single year since 1990: 18 in 1993. The
combined average voter turnout for those elections was
27 percent.
Since 1990, there has been at least one special
election every year, except in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The cost of a special election can vary widely and
differs from county to county.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Elections to fill legislative
and congressional vacancies add considerable general
fund expenditures by local governments. Usually, these
unscheduled elections cannot be anticipated far enough
in advance to factor budgetary costs and budget planning
by the county, and often contribute to over expended
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budgets, which decrease funding for other essential
county programs. To date, there have been seven special
elections that have taken place or are scheduled to take
place at the expense of the counties including: 26th SD,
32nd CD, 51st AD, 10th CD, 72nd AD, 37th SD and 43rd AD.
2. Related Legislation : AB 1769 (Tran), an urgency
measure will require the state to pay the costs of any
special elections to fill a vacancy in the office of
State Senate, Assembly, or to fill a vacancy in the
office of the United States Senate or Representative,
held on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 31,
2010. The bill is currently (4/14) pending hearing in
the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Prior Legislation : AB 37 (Johnson), Chapter 39, Statutes
of 1993 originally enacted the special election
reimbursement provision, and contained a sunset date of
January 1, 1996. Legislation extending the sunset dates
have since been introduced and passed as follows:
AB 1709 (McPherson), Chapter 1102, Statutes of 1996
extended the sunset date for the reimbursement to
January 1, 2000.
AB 547 (Longville), Chapter 790, Statutes of 1999 further
extended the sunset date to January 1, 2005.
AB 183 (Longville) of 2001 would have removed the sunset
altogether had it not been vetoed by then Governor
Davis, who in his veto stated: "Given the decline of
the state economy, there is ample time to make this
decision before the 2005 sunset."
AB 783 (Jones), Chapter 714, Statutes of 2005 reinstated
the reimbursement provision enacted by AB 37 and
extended the sunset date from January 1, 2005 to January
1, 2006.
AB 1799, (McCarthy), Chapter 727 Statutes of 2006,
extended the sunset date from January 1, 2006 until
January 1, 2007.
3. 2009 Vacancy Elections : The Governor issued
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proclamations calling for special elections which were
held April 13, 2010 for vacancies in the 37th Senate
District - former Senator John Benoit resigned his seat
after being appointed to the Riverside County Board of
Supervisors on November 4, 2009; the 43rd Assembly
District due to the vacancy created when Paul Krekorian
resigned January 5, 2010 to take his seat with the Los
Angeles City Council in an election held on December 8,
2009, and on January 12, 2010, Chris Norby was elected
to fulfill the 72nd Assembly District seat vacated by
Mike Duvall. Estimated costs for the two special
elections recently held this month in the following
counties: Los Angeles $1.8 million and Riverside
$800-900 thousand.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: County of Los Angeles
Support: California State Association of Counties (CSAC)
Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC)
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors
Secretary of State
Urban Counties Caucus
Oppose: None received
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