BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 346
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 346 (Atkins) - As Amended: April 4, 2011
SUBJECT : Polling places: higher education campuses.
SUMMARY : Requires county elections officials to establish at
least one polling place on a higher education campus at each
election. Specifically, this bill :
1)Defines the phrase "higher education campus," for the purposes
of this bill, as a campus of a community college, the
California State University (CSU), or the University of
California (UC).
2)Requires the county elections official, for elections
conducted by a county, to establish at least one polling place
on a higher education campus.
3)Exempts a county elections official of a county that does not
have a higher education campus within its jurisdiction from
the provisions of this bill.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires an elections official to designate a polling place
for each precinct at least 29 days prior to the election.
2)Provides that if a city or county elections official
specifically requests the use of a school building for polling
places on an election day, the governing body having
jurisdiction over the particular school building shall allow
its use for the purpose requested.
3)Requires elections officials, when designating polling places,
to undertake necessary measures to ensure that polling places
meet the guidelines promulgated by the Secretary of State
(SOS) for accessibility by the physically handicapped.
4)Requires the SOS to annually provide every high school,
community college, and CSU and UC campus with voter
registration forms.
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5)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that every school do
all in its power to ensure that students are provided the
opportunity and means to register to vote.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program; contains
reimbursement direction.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author, "AB 346 ensures
that community resources such as Universities, Colleges, and
Community Colleges are utilized as polling locations. Placing
polling locations at known community locations not only
benefits the voting public but it further demonstrates the
State's commitment to ensuring that students have easy access
to voting. Current law establishes that registering students
as voters is a priority but it fails to deliver the one thing
that students need in order to vote - easy access to a polling
location. AB 346 ensures that county registrars make sure
students have access to polling locations."
2)Polling Places on College Campuses : Current law provides
elections officials discretion in determining polling places,
as long as the selected locations meet specific requirements.
However, given that elections officials must comply with the
Polling Place Accessibility Guidelines developed by the SOS,
locations that meet all of the criteria are usually limited.
Although existing law permits elections official to locate
polling places on college and university campuses, and such
campuses are likely to comply with accessibility requirements,
the use of college and university campuses as polling places
in the past has been limited.
In the past, county elections officials have claimed that the
reason for not utilizing these campuses is a combination of a
lack of cooperation from the campuses as well as the potential
for voter confusion. Many students attending college away
from home are typically registered to vote in their home
county, and not the county in which they are attending school.
As a result, many students show up to the campus polling site
with an intent to vote and are turned away. The potential
increase of ineligible students at the campus polling place
could cause longer lines at the polls and distract poll
workers from assisting other voters who are assigned to that
polling place and wish to vote. However, it may be possible
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to minimize this confusion with effective outreach efforts to
inform students, prior to an election, about registration and
voting requirements.
3)Cooperation : To the extent that this bill requires elections
officials to locate at least one polling place on a higher
education campus, this bill will also require the cooperation
of higher education campuses with elections officials to
utilize the facilities and set up the polling place.
Although current law requires the governing body having
jurisdiction over a particular school building to allow its
use for polling places on an election day, if a city or county
elections official specifically requests it, it is unclear
whether this provision applies to community colleges and the
CSU.
In addition, the California Constitution (Section 9 of Article
IX) establishes the UC as a public trust and confers the full
powers of the UC upon the UC Regents. The Constitution
establishes that the UC is subject to legislative control only
to the degree necessary to ensure the security of its funds
and compliance with the terms of its endowments. Judicial
decisions have held that there are three additional areas in
which there may be limited legislative intrusion into
university operations: authority over the appropriation of
state moneys; exercise of the general police power to provide
for the public health, safety and welfare; and, legislation on
matters of general statewide concern not involving internal
university affairs. In light of the limited ability of the
legislature to require the UC to make their facilities
available for use as polling places, county elections
officials may be limited in their ability to use UC campuses,
and may have to more heavily rely on community college and CSU
campuses.
4)Elections Mandates : The 2011-2012 State Budget that was
approved by the Legislature on March 17, 2011, 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 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
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the Legislature has voted to suspend the existing election
mandates.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Maria Garcia / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094