BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2692
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Date of Hearing: May 1, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2692 (Elections & Redistricting Committee) - As Introduced:
March 14, 2012
SUBJECT : Electoral districts and precincts.
SUMMARY : Makes various minor and technical changes to state
law governing elections. Specifically, this bill :
1)Repeals obsolete provisions of existing law that specified the
boundaries of Assembly districts that were used for elections
to the Assembly for terms commencing between 2002 and 2010.
Repeals obsolete provisions of existing law that specified the
boundaries of congressional districts that were used for
elections to the United States House of Representatives for
terms commencing between 2003 and 2011.
2)Provides for the repeal, on January 1, 2015, of provisions of
existing law that specified the boundaries of Senate districts
that were used for elections to the Senate for terms
commencing between 2002 and 2010. Provides for the repeal, on
January 1, 2015, of provisions of existing law that specified
the boundaries of Board of Equalization (BOE) districts that
were used for elections to the BOE for terms commencing
between 2003 and 2011.
3)Repeals a provision of law that requires elections officials,
when establishing precinct boundaries, to avoid crossing
census tract or enumeration district lines to the extent
possible and without subjecting voters to significant
inconvenience.
4)Repeals a provision of law that requires elections officials,
when providing the Legislature with information and statistics
necessary for use in connection with the drawing of
legislative districts, to identify each precinct according to
the census tract or enumeration district in which it is
located.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the boundaries of Senate, Assembly, BOE, and
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congressional districts based on the 2000 census.
2)Establishes the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC), and
gives it the responsibility for establishing the district
lines for Senate, Assembly, Congress, and the BOE.
3)Prohibits elections officials, when establishing precinct
boundaries, from establishing any precinct so that its
boundary crosses the boundary of any supervisorial district,
congressional district, senatorial district, Assembly
district, BOE district, judicial district, incorporated city,
ward, or city council district. Requires elections officials,
to the extent possible and without subjecting voters to
significant inconvenience, to avoid crossing census tracts or
enumeration district lines when establishing precinct
boundaries.
4)Requires the county elections official in each county to
compile and make available to the Legislature or any
appropriate committee of the Legislature any information and
statistics that may be necessary for use in connection with
the creation of new legislative districts, including election
returns for each precinct. Requires the elections official,
when providing this information, to identify each precinct
according to the census tract or enumeration district in which
it is located.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : This is one of the Assembly Elections
and Redistricting Committee's annual omnibus bills, containing
various minor and technical changes to provisions of state law
governing elections.
2)Legal Descriptions of Legislative, Congressional, and Board of
Equalization Districts : With the approval of Propositions 11
(2008) and 20 (2010), the authority for establishing the
boundaries for Assembly, Senate, congressional, and BOE
districts was transferred from the Legislature and the
Governor to the newly-established CRC. Because the CRC
establishes districts by adopting a resolution, and not
through the enactment of a statute, the legal descriptions of
the 2001 districts that were established by the Legislature
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remain in the Elections Code (see generally Elections Code
Sections 21100-21140 for Senate districts, Sections
21200-21280 for Assembly districts, Sections 21300-21304 for
BOE districts, and Sections 21400-21453 for congressional
districts). In printed versions of the Elections Code, these
legal descriptions of outdated district lines can take up a
few hundred pages.
This bill would repeal the legal descriptions of the 2001
Assembly and congressional districts effective January 1,
2013. Additionally, this bill would repeal the legal
descriptions of Senate and BOE districts effective January 1,
2015. The Senate and BOE district boundaries would remain in
statute until 2015 because members of those bodies elected in
2010 will continue to represent those district boundaries
until their terms expire in late 2014 (in the case of the
Senate) or early 2015 (in the case of the BOE). Additionally,
the Senate district boundaries will remain in the code until
2015 because any special election held to fill out the
remainder of a term of a Senator who was elected in 2010 will
be conducted using these 2001 district lines.
3)Precinct Boundaries : Existing law requires elections
officials, when they are creating precinct boundaries, to
avoid crossing census tract lines to the extent possible.
Additionally, when elections officials compile and report
precinct-level information and statistics that are used for
redistricting purposes, the officials are required to identify
each precinct by census tract. While census data is vital to
the redistricting process, census tracts are no longer used in
describing district boundaries. As a result, the requirements
in existing law that precincts be identified by census tract
needlessly add additional cost and complexity for elections
officials when creating precincts and reporting election
information.
This bill would remove references to census tracts in the
process of creating precincts and reporting election data.
This provision was requested by the California Association of
Clerks and Election Officials.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094