BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: SB 908 HEARING DATE: 5/3/11
AUTHOR: RUNNER ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 4/11/11
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Elections: ballots: submission by electronic mail
DESCRIPTION
Existing law defines "special absentee voter" as an elector
who is any of the following:
A member of the armed forces of the United States or any
auxiliary branch thereof;
A citizen of the United States temporarily living outside
the territorial limits of the United States or the
District of Columbia;
Serving on a merchant vessel documented under the laws of
the United States; or,
A spouse or dependent of a member of the armed forces or
any auxiliary branch thereof.
Existing law requires the county elections official to mail
a ballot to all special absentee voters and overseas voters
who are permanent vote by mail (VBM) voters as soon as
possible on or after the 60th day prior to an election.
Existing law permits a special absentee voter to register
to vote and apply for a ballot by facsimile transmission,
and allows an elections official to send a ballot by mail,
facsimile, or electronic transmission to a special absentee
voter.
Existing law permits a special absentee voter, as defined,
to return his or her vote by mail ballot by facsimile
transmission to the elections official. The ballot must be
received by the close of the Election Day polls and
accompanied by an identification envelope and an oath of
voter declaration in a prescribed form and that he or she
has not applied for a vote by mail ballot from any other
jurisdiction for the election. The elections official is
required to determine the voter's eligibility to vote by
comparing the voter's signature from the materials returned
by facsimile transmission to the signature on the voter's
affidavit of registration.
This bill would permit a member of the Armed Forces of the
United States (U.S.) or any auxiliary branch thereof, or
his or her spouse or dependent, who is temporarily living
outside of the territorial limits of the U.S. or the
District of Columbia, or is called for military services
within the U.S. on or after the final date to make
application for a vote by absent voter ballot, to return
his or her ballot by electronic mail.
This bill would require that in order to submit a ballot by
electronic mail, the ballot and accompanying identification
envelope and an oath of voter declaration must be scanned
to create electronic copies of the documents. The
electronic copies shall be included in the electronic mail
sent to the elections official as attachments.
This bill would require the elections official to determine
the voter's eligibility to vote by comparing the signature
on the scanned copy of the identification envelope with the
signature on the voter's affidavit of registration.
This bill would provide that the ballot be duplicated and
all materials preserved according to established
procedures.
This bill would require the Secretary of State (SOS) to
adopt uniform regulations for the use of electronic mail in
returning ballots.
BACKGROUND
In 2004, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed
AB 2941 (Bates), Chapter 821, Statutes of 2004, which
permits special absentee voters who are temporarily living
outside the United States to return their ballots by
facsimile transmission. AB 2941 was modeled after the
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procedures adopted by the SOS for the 2003 recall election,
when the SOS had first ordered ballots returned from
overseas voters by fax to be counted. AB 2941 was intended
to accommodate voters who, due to potential delays in
international mail delivery and structural barriers present
in combat areas, may not be able to receive, vote, and
return a ballot in the 60-day period provided for overseas
voters.
In addition to these procedures, California law allows
overseas voters to register to vote and apply for ballots
by facsimile and allows the elections official to transmit
a ballot to an overseas voter by facsimile or other
electronic transmission.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author , SB 908 would permit members of
the military, their spouses and dependents who are
temporarily living outside of California to submit their
ballots electronically. The ballots would be
accompanied by a copy of an identification envelope and
an oath of voter declaration.
It is well documented that difficulties in transmission
have often denied our men and women in the military the
right to have their votes counted.
2. The MOVE Act . The MOVE Act was passed by Congress in
2009 in response to chronic reports from overseas and
military voters of late or lost ballots as well as
unduly burdensome requirements for registering and
requesting ballots. As of the 2010 General Election,
MOVE requires all states and territories to make voter
registration and absentee ballot applications available
electronically, provide a Federal Write-In Absentee
Ballot, allow for a 45-day window for the ballot
"round-trip," and several other reforms.
3. The Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) Survey . The OVF
released results of its 2010 Post Election Survey of
Military and Overseas Voters and the 2010 Local Election
Official Survey. More than 5,000 voters in 140
countries and more than 1,550 local election officials
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in the US participated. The results reveal that the
impact of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment
(MOVE) Act (passed in October 2009) on voters is still
mild.
The highlights of the OVF Survey revealed the following:
More than four fifths of voters (82%) received the
ballot they requested, representing a 5% improvement
over 2008.
Fewer voters reported receiving their ballots late.
16.5% of those voters who indicated that they wanted
to participate reported getting their ballot after the
middle of October, which was a strong improvement over
the 50% reported in 2008.
There was an increase in the use of electronic
transmission methods of blank ballots. All 50 states
provided for the electronic transmission of blank
ballots to voters, mainly via email or online
download, and two states allowed transmission by fax.
Use of electronic transmission was up from 20 states
in 2008.
The vast majority of voters (80%) used some form of
electronic method to complete a registration/ballot
request form, and nearly one quarter (23%) of voters
chose to receive their blank ballots via electronic
transmission.
Voters who used electronic methods to request a
ballot were less likely to receive a ballot. Of the
18% of voters who did not receive their requested
ballots, 22% of them used either email or fax to send
in a voter registration/ballot request form (unchanged
from 2008), whereas only 16% of those who used
physical postal methods did not get a ballot.
Despite the fact that all states provided for some
electronic blank ballot delivery mechanism, almost
one-third (29%) of local election officials (LEOs)
reported that they were not providing ballots
electronically, which indicates that much of the MOVE
Act implementation took place on the state level
rather than the local level. LEOs gave low marks to
online ballot delivery and online ballot tracking.
The most marked positive impact was a 15% decrease in 2010
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over 2008, in the number of voters who dropped out of the
process and did not vote because their ballots were lost or
late.
SOS Concerns . The SOS asserts by allowing voters to return
their ballots by e-mail, SB 908 will introduce new risks to
the voting process. Citing from a recent Department of
Defense study, "e-mail traffic 'can flow through equipment
owned and operated by various governments, companies and
individuals in many different countries. It is easily
monitored, blocked and subject to tampering."'
From information provided by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), the SOS further cites
that, "the e-mail return of a voted ballot cannot be
considered secure. First through something known as a
'denial of service attack,' a local election official's
e-mail servers could be flooded with large amounts of
illegitimate traffic by people whose sole goal is to
prevent legitimate ballots from reaching the intended
e-mail inbox by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day." Furthermore,
NIST notes, "that malicious parties could intercept a voted
ballot and modify or replace it before it reaches the
election official's e-mail inbox. In these instances, the
voter and elections official may never know the voter's
selections had been altered or replaced."
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: None received
Oppose: Secretary of State
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