BILL NUMBER: SB 1346 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 5, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hancock
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to add Sections 10708, 10709, 10710, 10711, and
10712 , and 10713 to the Elections 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 a vacancy in the office of United
States Representative in Congress, State Senator, or Member of the
Assembly, 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.
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 10708 is added to the Elections Code, to read:
10708. (a) The board of supervisors of an affected county may
determine during a public hearing whether to fill 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, and 10713, if the county has received
certification from the Secretary of State in accordance with
subdivision (c).
(b) If neither option in subdivision (a) is approved by a majority
of an affected county's board of supervisors, a quorum being
present, then the vacancy shall be filled pursuant to paragraph (1)
of subdivision (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 (a).
(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 , if necessary,
between multicounty districts, to conduct an election under
those provisions.
SEC. 2. Section 10709 is added to the Elections Code, to read:
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.
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. 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. 5. Section 10712 is added to the Elections Code, to read:
10712. All candidates shall be listed on one ballot.
SEC. 6. Section 10713 is added to the
Elections Code , to read:
10713. An instant runoff voting special election authorized
pursuant to this chapter 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 instant runoff voting 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.