BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 66 HEARING: 2/9/11
AUTHOR: Vargas FISCAL: No
VERSION: 1/6/11 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Weinberger
IMPERIAL COUNTY'S REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (URGENCY)
Authorizes the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to
appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county
clerk.
Background and Existing Law
In most counties, the county clerk is an elected officer
who serves both as clerk of the board of supervisors and as
registrar of voters.
State law authorizes supervisors in 11 counties (El Dorado,
Kings, Lake, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Riverside, San
Joaquin, Solano, and Tulare) to appoint a registrar of
voters separate from the county clerk. Supervisors in six
of those counties separately appoint a registrar of voters.
In Mono County, voters authorized county supervisors to
appoint a county clerk-recorder-registrar of voters.
The California Constitution allows a county to adopt a
voter-approved charter that provides for consolidating and
separating county officers and specifies the manner of
filling vacant county offices. The registrar of voters is
an appointed office in eight of the 14 charter counties.
In 2009, Imperial County supervisors passed an ordinance
that transferred, on January 3, 2011, the registrar of
voters' duties from the county clerk-recorder to a
separate, appointed registrar of voters. However, because
Imperial County is a general law county, state law must be
changed to authorize this reorganization.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 66 authorizes the Imperial County Board of
SB 66 -- 1/6/11 -- Page 2
Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters separate from
the county clerk.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Anticipating the retirement of
the county clerk-recorder-registrar of voters, the Imperial
County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance in 2009
that removed the registrar of voters' duties from the
county clerk-recorder's office and created a separate,
appointed registrar of voters position on January 3, 2011.
The supervisors received legal advice that led them to
believe that these county offices could be restructured by
amending county ordinances, without any change in state
law. The county counsel's office recently determined that
a change in state law is necessary before the board can
appoint a separate registrar of voters. Because the County
may have to conduct a special election later this year,
Imperial County supervisors urgently want the Legislature
to grant them the same statutory authority to appoint a
registrar of voters that the Legislature has granted to 11
other counties.
2. Home rule . By adopting a county charter, local voters
can empower their county supervisors to appoint a registrar
of voters to act as the county's elections officer. They
don't need to wait for the Legislature to act. The
Committee may wish to consider whether Imperial County
voters should get to decide whether the responsibility for
Imperial County's elections should be transferred from an
elected official to an appointed official.
3. If at first you don't succeed . AB 2246 (Garcia, 2004)
would have added Imperial County to the list of counties in
which supervisors can appoint a separate registrar of
voters. That bill died without receiving a hearing in the
Assembly Committee on Elections, Reapportionment, and
Constitutional Amendments.
4. Urgency clause . Regular statutes take effect on the
SB 66 -- 1/6/11 -- Page 3
January 1 following their enactment; bills passed in 2011
take effect on January 1, 2012. The California
Constitution allows bills with urgency clauses to take
effect immediately if they're needed for the public peace,
health, and safety. SB 66 contains an urgency clause so
that Imperial County supervisors can appoint a registrar of
voters this year, before the date of a possible special
election in 2011.
Support and Opposition (2/3/11)
Support : Imperial County, American Federation of State,
County, and Municipal Employees.
Opposition : Unknown.