BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1724 HEARING DATE: 7/03/12
AUTHOR: FONG ANALYSIS BY: DARREN CHESIN
AMENDED: 5/10/12
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Voting: polling place procedures
DESCRIPTION
Existing law prohibits voters from remaining in or
occupying the booths or compartments for longer than either
five or 10 minutes unless a longer time period will not
inconvenience other voters.
This bill resolves the 5 versus ten minute conflict in
existing law that governs the amount of time that a voter
can spend in the voting booth in favor of the ten minute
limit but permits a voter to receive additional time to
mark his or her ballot when necessary. Specifically, this
bill:
Repeals a provision of law that prohibits voters from
remaining in or occupying voting booths or compartments
longer than five minutes, except under certain
circumstances. This provision conflicts with another
portion of existing law that prohibits voters from
remaining in or occupying voting booths or compartments
longer than 10 minutes.
Permits any voter who needs more than 10 minutes to
complete his or her ballot to inform a precinct board
member of that fact and to receive additional time to
complete the ballot.
Provides that if a precinct board member determines
that a voter is attempting to interfere with the conduct
of the election and does not require additional time to
mark his or her ballot, that precinct board member may
contact the elections official, who may order that the
voter not be provided with additional time to mark his
or her ballot.
Makes other conforming changes.
BACKGROUND
Take Five -- or Ten ? Existing law contains two conflicting
provisions that set a limit on the amount of time that a
voter can remain in a voting booth or compartment.
Elections Code Section 14224 sets a 10 minute limit on the
amount of time that a voter can remain in a voting booth or
compartment to cast his or her ballot, while Elections Code
Section 19363 sets a five minute limit. Elections Code
Section 19363 is located in a part of the code dealing with
lever voting machines - machines that are no longer used in
this state.
COMMENTS
1.According to the author , existing law contains two
conflicting provisions that set a limit on the amount of
time that a voter can remain in a voting booth or
compartment.
Section 14224 of the Elections Code provides that a voter
may not remain in the voting booth longer than necessary
to mark his or her ballot, but the total amount of time
shall not exceed ten minutes. Section 19363 of the
Elections Code, however, provides that a voter may not
remain in the voting booth longer than necessary to mark
his or her ballot, but the total amount of time shall not
exceed five minutes.
These conflicting standards can cause confusion for voters
and for poll workers. Furthermore, since Section 19363
is in an area of the Elections Code that governs the use
of lever voting machines (machines that are no longer
used), that section is obsolete and should be repealed.
Furthermore, the two existing code sections that establish
a limit on how long a person can spend in the voting
booth both allow voters to have additional time in the
booth, but only if "no other voter would be
AB 1724 (FONG)
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inconvenienced." While many voters are able to complete
their ballots in ten minutes, some voters need additional
time to make their selections, especially at elections
where there are a large number of offices and measures on
the ballot. Those voters should be given the opportunity
and time that they need to complete their ballots.
AB 1724 resolves the conflict in existing law regarding the
amount of time that a voter can spend in the voting booth
by repealing Section 19363 of the Elections Code. As a
result, voters will have ten minutes to mark their
ballots.
In order to protect the voting rights of voters who require
additional time to mark their ballots, AB 1724 permits a
voter to remain for longer than ten minutes if the voter
informs a precinct board member that he or she requires
additional time to mark the ballot.
Finally, in order to ensure that the flexibility provided
by this bill is not abused, AB 1724 allows an elections
official to refuse to provide a voter with additional
time to vote if that voter does not need additional time
to mark his or her ballot but instead is attempting to
interfere with the conduct of the election.
2.Previous Legislation . This bill is substantially similar
to AB 686 (Ruskin) of 2009, which was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger. In his veto message, the Governor argued
that there was "no evidence that the discrepancy in
current law has resulted in a significant problem for
voters."
In addition, this bill is substantially similar to AB 3014
(Mullin) of 2008, which was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger, though the Governor did not express any
policy objections to that bill. AB 3014 was one of the
136 bills that received the same veto message. That veto
message read as follows: "The historic delay in passing
the 2008-2009 State Budget has forced me to prioritize
the bills sent to my desk at the end of the year's
legislative session. Given the delay, I am only signing
bills that are the highest priority for California. This
bill does not meet that standard and I cannot sign it at
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this time."
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-1
Assembly Floor: 72-3
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
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