BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1343|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1343
Author: Fong (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMMITTEE : 3-2, 6/8/11
AYES: Correa, De Le�n, Lieu
NOES: La Malfa, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-26, 4/25/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Vote by mail: procedures
SOURCE : California Association of Letter Carriers
DIGEST : This bill requires a voter's name to be deleted
from the permanent vote by mail voter list if he/she fails
to return a vote-by-mail ballot for four consecutive
statewide general elections, instead of two consecutive
statewide general elections.
ANALYSIS : Existing law allows any voter to become a
permanent vote-by-mail (PVBM) voter, and requires a voter's
name to be deleted from the PVBM voter list if he/she fails
to return an executed vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot for two
consecutive statewide general elections.
Comments
Permanent Vote by Mail Voting : AB 1520 (Shelley) Chapter
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AB 1343
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922, Statutes of 2001, allows 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.
Previous Legislation
SB 39 (Murray), Chapter 113, Statutes of 2005, requires a
voter's name to be deleted from the PVBM voter list if
he/she failed to return a VBM ballot for two consecutive
statewide general elections, instead of failing to return a
VBM ballot in any single statewide general election.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/8/11)
California State Association of Letter Carriers (source)
California Labor Federation
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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.
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
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AB 1343
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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/her name was deleted from the PVBM voter list.
This bill 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.
The sponsor of this bill, the California State Association
of Letter Carriers writes, "�w]e believe that every
opportunity should be extended to allow qualified permanent
vote by mail voters to continue to remain on the permanent
vote by mail list. Since its introduction, permanent vote
by mail in California has resulted in increased
participation among voters, been easier for election
officials to conduct, and has given voters a much longer
opportunity to study the ballot and find answers to their
questions prior to casting their votes."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Block,
Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan,
Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo,
Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes,
Galgiani, Gordon, Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma,
Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez,
Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torres,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NOES: Achadjian, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook, Donnelly,
Fletcher, Garrick, Gatto, Grove, Hagman, Halderman,
Harkey, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Miller,
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AB 1343
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Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Silva, Smyth, Valadao,
Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Furutani, Gorell, Olsen, Vacancy
DLW:do 6/8/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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