BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 193 HEARING DATE:6/7/11
AUTHOR: KNIGHT ANALYSIS BY:Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 4/26/11
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Polling place designation
DESCRIPTION
Existing law generally requires persons convicted of
enumerated sex offenses pursuant to Sex Offender
Registration Act (SORA) to register within five working
days of coming into a city or county, with specified law
enforcement officials in the city, county, or city and
county where he or she is domiciled.
Existing law requires the elections official to designate a
polling place for each precinct at least 29 days prior to
the election.
This bill prohibits a single family home from being
designated as a polling place if it is the residence of a
person who is required to register pursuant to the SORA.
This bill requires elections officials, at a minimum, to
consult the database of registered sex offenders that is
maintained by the Department of Justice prior to
designating a location as a polling place.
BACKGROUND
Polling sites . Counties try to use the same polling place
for each election; typically a voter's polling place
normally does not change between the primary and the
general elections. If a county is conducting smaller local
elections where the turnout is likely to be lower, the
county may consolidate precincts into fewer polling places.
A voter can determine where their polling place is by
looking at the back of their sample ballot. The back cover
contains the name and address of the voter's polling place.
A voter can also call their county elections official, to
find out where their polling place is located.
However, while elections officials are required to publish
a list of polling places not less than "one week before"
the election, if a polling place has been changed
unexpectedly, or a voter moves prior to that "one week
before" timeframe, the process becomes problematic.
Elections officials often have trouble locating polling
places that are accessible to disabled voters, as required
by state and federal law. By potentially limiting the
number of locations that are available to be used as
polling places, this bill could make it more difficult for
elections officials to locate polling places in compliance
with state and federal accessibility laws and in locations
that are convenient for voters.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Several articles were
published this past summer outlining the discovery of
polling locations being at the residences of registered
sex offenders. When the news station decided to
investigate further, the results were astonishing. It
was discovered in a rough search that there were 19
polling places in 5 Bay Area counties that were listed
on Megan's Law website as the residences of sex
offenders. In some cases, because the polling location
was an apartment, there were multiple sex offenders
living at one address.
Often, at polling locations, high school students
volunteer, parents bring their children and there is an
expectation of security. When there are so many
options available for locations, why would a polling
location be placed at the residence of a sex offender?
When information regarding sex offender locations is
available on a comprehensive public database, the
Counties and State should consult it prior to
designating a polling place.
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2. Workload and State Mandates : According to
information from the United States Election Assistance
Commission, there were more than 15,000 polling places
open in California on Election Day at the 2008
Presidential General Election. Under the provisions of
this bill, elections officials would be required to
look up every single family home that potentially will
be used as a polling place on the state's sex offender
registry before designating any of those residences as
a polling place. The exact number of polling places
that are located at single family residences in a
typical election is unknown, and the percentage of
polling places located at single family residences
varies significantly from county to county, with some
counties locating more than 20 percent of polling
places at single family homes while other counties do
not locate any polling places at single family
residences. However, based on a review of polling
locations in selected counties for the November 2010
General Election, it appears likely that not more than
10 percent of polling places statewide are located at
single family residences.
As passed by the Legislature, the pending 2011-2012 State
Budget suspends most existing state-mandated local
programs as a mechanism for cost savings. Among the
mandates that were suspended were a requirement for
counties to allow any voter to become a permanent vote
by mail (VBM) voter and a requirement for counties to
tabulate VBM ballots by precinct.
In fact, all six existing elections-related mandates
were suspended in the 2011-2012 Budget Bill. The
Committee may wish to consider whether it is desirable
to establish new election mandates on counties when the
Legislature has voted to suspend the existing election
mandates.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 15-0
Assembly Floor: 73-1
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: California Police Chiefs Association
Crime Victims United of California
KlaasKids Foundation
San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Oppose: None received
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