BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 346 HEARING
DATE: 7/5/11
AUTHOR: ATKINS ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 6/15/11
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Polling places: public higher education campuses
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires an elections official to designate a
polling place for each precinct at least 29 days prior to
the election and provides that if an 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.
Existing law 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.
This bill requires county elections officials to establish
at least one polling place for each state election on a
campus of a community college, the California State
University (CSU), or the University of California (UC)
within their respective counties.
This bill exempts from these requirements counties with a
population under 150,000 and counties that do not have a
CSU, UC, or community college campus within its
jurisdiction.
BACKGROUND
Small County Exemption . This bill exempts counties that
have a population under 150,000, which include Alpine,
Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt,
Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc,
Mono, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Benito, Sierra, Siskiyou,
Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, and Yuba.
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 officials 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. Discussions with county elections
officials indicate that polling places are often located on
public and private college campuses when the colleges
cooperate and there are enough voters registered on the
campus to merit it or when the location and parking
situation on campus makes the polling place convenient for
off-campus voters.
COMMENTS
1. 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.
AB 346 seeks to improve access to polling locations for
students, who tend to be first time voters. Students
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are faced with many decisions and options when they
first go to college, university or community college.
Many will be first time voters. Having access to a
polling location that is conveniently located on the
campus that they attend school will help to ensure that
the student is registered in the county that they now
reside in to attend that school and provide them direct
access to a county polling location where they can
easily cast their vote without the struggle of finding
the polling location which may be off campus.
Access to polling locations on campus will also encourage
discussion about voting, registration and the issues.
Student organizations have communicated that they
believe when a polling location has been on their
campus, that registrations went up and actual voter
turnout increased.
Currently, there is no provision in the elections code
that prioritizes outreach, education and encouragement
of voter registration and voter turnout to the
first-time student voting population. Student voters
make a small percentage of the voting population yet
their participation in the process is crucial to a
well-balanced and informed voting public.
Our goal for this bill is: improve student voter
registration; improve access to election material,
resources, and instruction on voter registration; and
increase the number of student voters.
2. June Exodus ? This bill requires elections officials
to locate a polling place on public college campuses as
specified for each state election. What is the purpose
of requiring a polling place on a college campus for a
Primary Election in June when most, if not all,
students will be away on summer break? The committee
and the author may wish to consider amending this bill
to exclude state elections scheduled for June or any
other time (special state elections) when these
campuses are on summer or other types of breaks.
3. No Dorms, No Voters ? This bill requires elections
officials to locate a polling place on public college
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campuses whether or not the only qualifying campus in
the county has any on-campus student housing. For
instance, less than 10% of the state's community
college campuses have on-campus student housing. The
committee and the author may wish to consider amending
this bill to exclude counties that do not have a public
college with on-campus student housing.
4. Not Enough Voters for a Polling Place ? This bill
requires elections officials to locate a polling place
on public college campuses as specified whether or not
there are an adequate number of students residing on
campus that are registered to vote at that campus
address. Many of the on-campus student residents may
not be registered to vote at all or may be registered
to vote at their permanent domicile (e.g., their
parents' residence). The committee and the author may
wish to consider amending this bill to exclude counties
that do not have a public college with an adequate
number of students residing on campus that are
registered to vote at that campus address.
5. Have You Tried to Park at a College Lately ? For
elections scheduled in November, voters who do not
reside on campus but live within that same precinct may
be forced to utilize the on-campus polling place
required by this bill. These off-campus voters may
have difficulty finding adequate parking spaces on a
Tuesday in November when classes are in full swing.
Furthermore, unless these voters are familiar with the
layout of the campus they may have difficulty
navigating the campus in order to locate the polling
place.
6. Out-of-County Student Voters Need Not Apply . County
elections officials have indicated that reasons for not
utilizing these campuses more often 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.
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7. Campus Cooperation . To the extent that this bill
requires elections officials to locate at least one
polling place on a public 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, assuming one is available.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-2
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-5
Assembly Floor: 51-25
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
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Support: California College Democrats
California State University Employees Association
California Young Democrats
Oppose: None received
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