BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 503
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 503 (Block) - As Amended: April 4, 2011
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires an elections official, upon the request of a
qualified write-in candidate, to hand tally the votes for the
write-in candidate, as specified, and to count each ballot if
the intent of the voter can be determined. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Defines "undervote," for the purposes of this bill, as a
ballot on which a voter failed to cast any vote for a specific
office or failed to cast the maximum number of votes
permitted, as detected by an electronic, mechanical, or other
vote-tabulating device.
2)Requires an elections official, after tallying all eligible
votes but prior to completion of the official canvass and the
issuance of the certified statement of the results, to hand
tally undervotes if any of certain specified conditions apply.
3)Permits the elections official to stop the hand tally upon
determining that the conditions are no longer applicable or
when all of the undervotes for the office have been examined.
4)Requires the elections official, while conducting the hand
tally, to count each vote for the office if the intent of the
voter can be determined, regardless of whether the voter has
complied with the voting instructions.
5)Provides that the requirement of the elections official to
hand tally undervotes only applies:
a) If a request is received within five days of completion
of the semi-official canvass from a qualified write-in
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candidate for an office being voted on in that election for
an examination of undervotes.
b) In an election that was conducted using a voting system
in which write-in spaces appear directly below the list of
candidates for that office and provide a voting space.
6)Provides that a qualified write-in candidate is not
responsible for the costs of a hand tally requested pursuant
to this bill.
FISCAL EFFECT
Statewide costs would depend on the number of recounts involved,
but could result in GF reimbursable costs in the millions of
dollars following any election. One large county, based on a
recent recount involving only 16% of county precincts, estimates
that a countywide recount would cost $250,000, which does not
incorporate the likely overtime costs of performing the recount
during the official canvas period.
COMMENTS
1)Background and Purpose . Donna Frye was a qualified write-in
candidate for Mayor of the City of San Diego at the November
2004 election. When the official canvass of election results
was completed, it showed Frye finishing second to incumbent
mayor Dick Murphy by 2,108 votes. A recount requested by five
media organizations and two Frye supporters uncovered a total
of 5,551 ballots in which a voter wrote-in Frye's name on the
ballot in the correct location, but did not darken the oval
next to the write-in space. Had those ballots been counted
for Frye, she would have won the election by 3,443 votes.
However, the registrar of voters in San Diego County refused
to count those votes, citing state law that requires the oval
to be filled-in in order for a write-in vote to count. A
subsequent lawsuit challenging the registrar's decision was
rejected by the court.
This bill would require a recount of ballots at the write-in
candidate's request, including write-in ballots where, even
though not properly marked, the voters' intent can be
discerned, in those circumstances where it is mathematically
possible to change the election outcome. Under current law,
any candidate requesting a recount must pay for that recount
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unless it changes the outcome of the election.
2)Elections Mandates . As recently passed by the Legislature,
the pending 2011-12 Budget suspends most existing
state-mandated local programs, including all six existing
elections-related mandates, as a cost-savings mechanism. This
bill adds another expensive mandate.
3)Related Legislation . AB 461 (Bonilla), pending on the Assembly
floor, requires a write-in vote to be counted, in the event of
a manual recount, if the voter's intent can be determined,
regardless of whether the voter has complied with the voting
instructions.
4)Prior Legislation . SB 439 (Calderon) of 2007, which was
similar to AB 461, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who
wrote, "The bill does not specify how the voter's intent could
be determined. If enacted this bill would introduce
subjectivity into the electoral process without providing any
direction or guidance to the elections officials?Requiring
that a voter fill in the corresponding bubble for a write-in
candidate is necessary for the efficient administration of the
vote count, and imposes a very small burden on a voter."
AB 43 (Vargas) of 2005, which was substantially similar to SB
439, was approved by the Assembly, but was never heard in the
Senate Elections Committee.
SB 1050 (Bowen) of 2005, which would have required a hand tally
of all ballots at the request of a write-in candidate, if
specified conditions were met, was also vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger, who wrote, "This process will expand the
number of manual hand recounts, which will lead to an
unnecessary delay in completing the canvass and certifying
election results. It will require county elections officials
to review every mark on ballots even in situations where it is
virtually impossible for the candidate challenging the vote to
prevail."
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081