BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2692|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2692
Author: Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 5-0, 6/19/12
AYES: Correa, La Malfa, Gaines, Lieu, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/10/12 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Electoral districts and precincts
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill makes various minor and technical
changes to state law governing elections. 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
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(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,
and (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.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law
1. Establishes the boundaries of Senate, Assembly, BOE, and
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
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information, to identify each precinct according to the
census tract or enumeration district in which it is
located.
Comments
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.
Legal Descriptions of Legislative, Congressional, and BOE
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 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 repeals the legal descriptions of the 2001
Assembly and congressional districts effective January 1,
2013. Additionally, this bill repeals 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.
Precinct Boundaries . Existing law requires elections
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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 removes 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/20/12)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/10/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Beth Gaines,
Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove, Hagman,
Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Pan, Perea,
Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cook, Fletcher, Furutani, Jeffries,
Norby, Olsen, V. Manuel P�rez
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DLW:do 6/20/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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