BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1343 HEARING DATE:6/7/11
AUTHOR: FONG ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Vote by mail: procedures: permanent vote by mail voters:
failure to return ballot
DESCRIPTION
Existing law allows any voter to become a permanent vote by
mail (PVBM) voter.
Existing law requires a voter's name to be deleted from the
PVBM voter list if he or she fails to return an executed
VBM ballot for two consecutive statewide general elections.
This bill requires a voter's name to be deleted from the
PVBM voter list if he or she fails to return a VBM ballot
for four consecutive statewide general elections, instead
of two consecutive statewide general elections.
BACKGROUND
Since 2002, California law has allowed any voter to become
a PVBM voter, and to receive automatically a VBM ballot for
every election without applying for a VBM ballot at each
election. Since that time, the number of PVBM voters in
the state has shot up from fewer than 300,000 in 2000, to
nearly 6.5 million by last November's general election.
Three out of every eight registered California voters are
now signed-up as PVBM voters.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author , as the number of PVBM voters
has increased, the percentage of votes cast by mail has
increased correspondingly. At last year's general
election, nearly 60 percent of ballots were cast by
mail, compared to less than a quarter of ballots just 10
years ago.
As more voters have signed up to be PVBM voters, however,
a larger number of occasional voters who prefer the
convenience of voting by mail have signed up to be PVBM
voters as well. As a result, the percentage of VBM
ballots mailed to voters that are returned and counted
has declined. At last year's primary election, only 51
percent of VBM ballots that were mailed to voters were
returned.
A voter who chose to become a PVBM voter because he or she
prefers the convenience of voting by mail has a
reasonable expectation of receiving a ballot in the mail
for every election in which that voter is eligible to
vote. However, existing law requires a voter to be
removed from the list of PVBM voters if he or she fails
to return a completed PVBM ballot in two consecutive
statewide general elections. As a result, a voter who
missed two consecutive elections could be prevented from
voting if that voter didn't realize that his or her name
was deleted from the PVBM voter list.
AB 1343 allows occasional voters to maintain their desired
status as PVBM voters by providing that a voter's name
will be deleted from the list of PVBM voters only if
that voter fails to vote in four consecutive statewide
elections.
2. Permanent Vote by Mail Voting : AB 1520 (Shelley)
Chapter 922, Statutes of 2001, allowed any voter to
become a PVBM voter. Since that time, according to
information from the Secretary of State, the number of
PVBM voters has increased more than twenty-fold, from
281,207 in November 2000, to 6,485,143 in November 2010.
3. Previous Legislation : SB 39 (Murray), Chapter 113,
Statutes of 2005, required a voter's name to be deleted
from the PVBM voter list if he or she failed to return a
VBM ballot for two consecutive statewide general
elections, instead of for failing to return a VBM ballot
in any single statewide general election.
AB 1343 (FONG) Page
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PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-2
Assembly Floor: 50-26
POSITIONS
Sponsor: California State Association of Letter Carriers
Support: California Labor Federation
Oppose: None received
AB 1343 (FONG) Page
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