BILL NUMBER: SB 1346 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hancock
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to amend Section 10700 of, and to add
Sections 10708, 10709, 10710, 10711, and 10712 to ,
the Elections Code, and to amend Section 1773 of
the Government Code, relating to elections.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1346, as amended, Hancock. Special legislative or congressional
election: instant runoff voting .
Existing law requires the Governor to call a special election to
fill a vacancy in a congressional or legislative office within 14
calendar days of the occurrence of the vacancy and provides that all
candidates be listed on the ballot and, if any candidate receives a
majority of all votes cast, he or she shall be declared elected. If a
candidate does not receive a majority of all votes cast, the names
of the candidates receiving the most votes representing a qualified
political party are placed on the special general election ballot as
that party's candidate. Under existing law, the special primary and
the special general elections are required to be conducted within
specified time periods.
This bill would instead authorize the board of supervisors of a
county or counties affected by the special
election to make a determination within 30 days of a vacancy on
whether to fill a vacancy in the office of United States
Representative in Congress, State Senator, or Member of the Assembly
by using a , if certified by the Secretary of
State, to make a determination to fill the vacancy using an
optional, prescribed instant runoff voting method, except that
if 2 or more counties are affected, all affected counties would have
to agree to use the instant runoff voting method. The bill
also would require the Governor to call the special election within 5
calendar days after the determination of the affected county or
counties on whether it will use the instant runoff procedures or
within 35 days of the vacancy if no determination is made.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 10700 of 10708 is added
to the Elections Code is amended ,
to read:
10700. 10708. (a) The
Governor shall call all statewide special elections by issuing a
proclamation pursuant to Section 12000.
(b) Within 30
calendar days of the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of United
States Representative in Congress, State Senator, or Member of the
Assembly, the board of supervisors of each board of
supervisors of an affected county may determine during a public
hearing whether to fill the vacancy a
vacancy in the office of United States Representative in Congress,
State Senate, or Member of the Assembly pursuant to either of
the following methods:
(1) Pursuant to Sections 10701, 10702, 10703, 10704, 10705, 10706,
and 10707.
(2) Pursuant to Sections 10701 and ,
10702, subdivision (b) of Section 10703,
and Sections 10707, 10708, 10709, 10710, 10711, and 10712
, if the county has received certification from the Secretary of
State in accordance with subdivision (c) .
(c)
(b) If neither option in subdivision (b)
(a) is approved by a majority of an affected
county's board of supervisors within 30 calendar days of the
occurrence of the vacancy , a quorum being present, then
the vacancy shall be filled pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision
(b) (a) . If two or more counties are
affected by the vacancy, the vacancy shall be filled pursuant to
paragraph (1) of subdivision (b), unless all affected counties
determine through their respective boards of supervisors, in
accordance with the procedure set forth above, to fill the vacancy
pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b)
(a) .
(d) Except as provided by Chapter 3 (commencing with Section
10730), in the case of a vacancy in a congressional or legislative
office the Governor shall issue a proclamation, within five calendar
days of the determination made pursuant to subdivision (b), or within
35 calendar days after the occurrence of the vacancy if no such
determination has been made, calling a special election in accordance
with that subdivision. A copy of the proclamation shall be sent to
the board of supervisors of each affected county.
(c) In order for a county or counties to participate in the
special election option set forth in paragraph (2) of subdivision
(a), the county or counties affected by the vacancy shall first have
been certified by the Secretary of State as having satisfactory plans
and equipment in place, including an agreement between multicounty
districts, to conduct an election under those provisions.
SEC. 2. Section 10708 10709 is added
to the Elections Code, to read:
10708. 10709. (a)
If authorized pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of
Section 10700, special elections to fill a vacancy in the offices of
United States Representative in Congress, State Senator, and Member
of the Assembly shall be conducted using "instant runoff voting,"
also known as "ranked choice voting."
(b) As used in this chapter, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Instant runoff voting" means an election method in which
voters rank the candidates for office in order of preference, and the
ballots are counted in rounds that, in the case of a single-winner
election, simulate a series of runoffs until one candidate receives a
majority of votes.
(2) In each round of counting the following definitions apply:
(A) "Continuing ballot" means a ballot that counts toward some
candidate.
(B) "Continuing candidate" means a candidate that has not been
eliminated.
(C) "Majority of votes" means more than 50 percent of the votes
coming from continuing ballots.
(c) Instant runoff voting for special elections to fill a vacancy
in the offices of United States Representative in Congress, State
Senator, and Member of the Assembly shall be conducted according to
the procedures set forth in this section. Every affected county shall
conduct a voter education and outreach campaign to
familiarize voters with instant runoff voting in every language
in which a ballot is made available to voters in the county. These
efforts shall include public service announcements in radio,
television, direct mail, telephone, or print media that are
disseminated in a manner consistent with the language assistance
requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. Sec.
1973aa-1) .
(d) The instant runoff voting ballot shall allow voters to rank as
many choices as there are candidates. The ballot shall not interfere
with a voter's ability to rank a write-in candidate. For the
purposes of this section, a mark for an unqualified write-in
candidate shall not be considered a mark for a candidate.
(e) The method of voting and counting ballots shall be conducted
by using rounds in the following manner:
(1) In the first round, every ballot shall count as a vote toward
the first-choice candidate on that ballot.
(2) After every round, if any candidate receives a majority of
votes from the continuing ballots, that candidate shall be declared
the winner.
(3) If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate receiving
the smallest number of votes shall be eliminated, and every ballot
counting toward that candidate shall be advanced to the next-ranked
continuing candidate on the ballot. If there is a tie between two or
more candidates for the smallest number of votes, the tie shall be
resolved by lot. All the ballots shall be counted again in a new
round.
(f) During the elimination stage of any round, in the event that
any candidate has more votes than the combined vote total of all
candidates with fewer votes, all the candidates with fewer votes
shall be eliminated simultaneously, and those ballots advanced to the
next-ranked continuing candidate.
(g) Skipped rankings. In the first or any round, in the event that
any ballot reaches a ranking with no candidate indicated, that
ballot shall immediately be advanced to the next ranking.
(h) After each round, any ballot that is not continuing is either
an undervote, overvote, or exhausted ballot, as follows:
(1) Any ballot that has no candidates indicated at any ranking
shall be declared an "undervote."
(2) In the event that any ballot reaches a ranking with more than
one candidate indicated, that ballot shall immediately be declared an
"overvote."
(3) In the event that any ballot cannot be advanced because no
further candidates are ranked on that ballot, that ballot shall
immediately be declared "exhausted."
(4) Any ballot that has been declared an undervote, overvote, or
exhausted shall remain so and shall not count toward any candidate in
that round or in subsequent rounds.
(i) Summary, ballot image, and comprehensive reports shall be made
available after each instant runoff voting election, as follows:
(1) The "summary report" for an election means a report that lists
the candidate vote totals in each round, along with the cumulative
numbers of undervotes, overvotes, and exhausted ballots in each
round.
(2) The "ballot image report" for an election means a report that
lists, for each ballot, the candidate or candidates indicated at each
ranking, the precinct of the ballot, and whether the ballot was cast
absentee. In the report, the ballots shall be listed in an order
that does not permit the order in which they were cast in each
precinct to be reconstructed.
(3) The "comprehensive report" for an election means a report that
breaks the numbers in the summary report down by precinct. The
report shall list, for each round, the number of ballots cast in each
precinct as follows:
(A) Ballots that count as votes for each candidate in that round.
(B) Ballots that have been declared undervotes.
(C) Ballots that have been declared overvotes up to that point.
(D) Ballots that have been declared exhausted up to that point.
(4) Preliminary versions of the summary report and ballot image
report shall be made available as soon as possible after the ballots
have begun to be processed and counted. The summary report, ballot
image report, comprehensive report, and preliminary versions of the
summary report and ballot image report shall be made available to the
public during the canvass via the Internet and by other means. The
ballot image report and preliminary versions of the ballot image
report shall be made available in a plain text electronic format.
(j) Prior to the selection of precincts for the public
postelection manual tally, as provided by state law, a report shall
be made available to the public that lists, for the ballots subject
to the manual tally, the number of those ballots in each precinct
that counted in each round as undervotes, overvotes, exhausted
ballots, and as votes for each candidate. The public manual tally
shall check those vote totals in each of the randomly selected
precincts.
(k) (1) For the purposes of this subdivision, "voting equipment"
means all ballots or voting devices, vote tabulating systems, or
similar or related systems to be used in the conduct of the instant
runoff voting election, including, but not limited to, paper ballot
systems, optical scan systems, and touch-screen systems.
(2) In the event that the voting equipment cannot feasibly
accommodate a number of rankings on the ballot equal to the number of
candidates, the Secretary of State may limit the number of choices a
voter may rank to the maximum number allowed by the equipment. This
limit shall never be less than three.
(3) If the voting equipment cannot feasibly accommodate all of the
procedures in subdivisions (e) to (i), inclusive, the Secretary of
State may make changes to those procedures provided that instant
runoff voting shall still be used and the fewest feasible number of
changes made until such time as the voting equipment can accommodate
those procedures in their entirety.
(4) If the state adopts guidelines for the conduct of instant
runoff voting elections and the voting equipment used to conduct the
instant runoff voting election can accommodate the state's
guidelines, the Secretary of State shall have the option of adopting
those guidelines, in whole or in part, in lieu of the instant runoff
voting procedures in this section.
(5) In the event that the voting equipment cannot store ballot
rankings, the Secretary of State may authorize the following change:
Before counting the ballots in rounds, the first ranking on every
ballot shall be tallied. The subdivision on skipped rankings shall
not be construed to apply to this initial tally. If some candidate
receives a majority of first rankings from all ballots cast,
including ballots with no candidate marked at the first ranking and
excluding ballots with more than one candidate marked at the first
ranking, that candidate shall be declared the winner; and the ballots
shall not be counted in rounds. Otherwise, the ballots shall be
counted in rounds in accordance with this section.
(6) The Secretary of State shall have the further authority to
make any necessary changes to the procedures set forth in this
subdivision, including modifying the reporting requirements, to
preserve the secrecy of the ballot and ensure the integrity and
smooth functioning of the election, provided that instant runoff
voting shall still be used and the fewest number of changes made to
achieve such purposes. If a majority of all affected counties decide
to adopt any such changes, then those changes shall apply uniformly
to all affected counties for that instant runoff voting election.
SEC. 3. Section 10709 is added to the Elections
Code, to read:
10709. An instant runoff voting special election shall be held on
a Tuesday at least 72 days, but not more than 86 days, following the
issuance of an election proclamation by the Governor pursuant to
Section 10700, except that any special election may be conducted
within 120 days following the proclamation in order that the election
or the primary election may be consolidated with the next regularly
scheduled statewide election or local election occurring wholly or
partially within the same territory in which the vacancy exists,
provided that the voters eligible to vote in the local election
comprise at least 50 percent of all the voters eligible to vote on
the vacancy.
SEC. 4. SEC. 3. Section 10710 is
added to the Elections Code, to read:
10710. Candidates at the instant runoff voting special election
shall be nominated in the manner set forth in Chapter 1 (commencing
with Section 8000) of Part 1 of Division 8, except that nomination
papers shall not be circulated more than 63 days before the instant
runoff voting special election, shall be left with the county
elections official for examination not less than 43 days before the
instant runoff voting special election, and shall be filed with the
Secretary of State not less than 39 days before the instant runoff
voting special election.
SEC. 5. SEC. 4. Section 10711 is
added to the Elections Code, to read:
10711. Notwithstanding Section 3001, applications for vote by
mail ballots may be submitted not more than 25 days before the
instant runoff voting special election, except that Section 3001
shall apply if the instant runoff voting special election is
consolidated with a statewide election. Applications received by the
elections official prior to the 25th day shall not be returned to the
sender, but shall be held by the elections official and processed by
him or her following the 25th day prior to the election in the same
manner as if received at that time.
SEC. 6. SEC. 5. Section 10712 is
added to the Elections Code, to read:
10712. (a) All candidates
shall be listed on one ballot.
(b) If only one candidate qualifies to have his or her name
printed on the instant runoff voting ballot, that candidate shall be
declared elected, and no instant runoff voting election shall be
held.
SEC. 7. Section 1773 of the Government Code is
amended to read:
1773. When a vacancy occurs in the office of Representative to
Congress, or in either house of the Legislature, the Governor shall
within five calendar days of the determination made pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 10700 of the Elections Code, or within 35
calendar days after the occurrence of the vacancy if no such
determination has been made, issue a writ of election to fill the
vacancy; provided, that when such vacancy occurs in a congressional
office after the close of the nomination period in the final year of
the term of office, a special election may be held, at the Governor's
discretion; and provided, further, that when a vacancy occurs in a
legislative office after the close of the nomination period in the
final year of the term of office, no special election shall be held.
The Governor shall issue the election proclamation under his hand
and the Great Seal of the state, and transmit copies to the board of
supervisors of the counties in which the election is to be held.