BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 908|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 908
Author: Runner (R)
Amended: 5/10/11
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMMITTEE : 3-2, 5/3/11
AYES: Correa, De Le�n, Lieu
NOES: La Malfa, Gaines
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Elections: ballots: submission by electronic
mail
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill permits a special absentee voter who
is temporarily living outside of the territorial limits of
the United States or the District of Columbia, or is called
for military services within the United States on or after
the final date to make application for a vote by absent
voter ballot, to return his/her ballot by electronic mail,
as prescribed. This bill requires the ballot to be
accompanied by a copy of an identification envelope and an
oath of voter declaration in substantially the form
described with respect to facsimile transmission of
ballots. This bill requires 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
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registration.
ANALYSIS : 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.
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 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/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.
Background
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
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the United States to return their ballots by facsimile
transmission. AB 2941 was modeled after the procedures
adopted by the Secretary of State (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.
Despite the fact that all states provided for some
electronic blank ballot delivery mechanism, almost
one-third (29 percent) 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 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.
The Overseas Vote Foundation 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 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.
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The highlights of the OVF Survey revealed the following:
More than four fifths of voters (82 percent)
received the ballot they requested, representing a
five percent improvement over 2008.
Fewer voters reported receiving their ballots late.
16.5 percent 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 percent 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 percent) used some
form of electronic method to complete a
registration/ballot request form, and nearly one
quarter (23 percent) 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 percent of voters who did not receive their
requested ballots, 22 percent of them used either
email or fax to send in a voter registration/ballot
request form (unchanged from 2008), whereas only 16
percent of those who used physical postal methods did
not get a ballot.
The most marked positive impact was a 15 percent decrease
in 2010 over 2008, in the number of voters who dropped out
of the process and did not vote because their ballots were
lost or late.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
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OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/20/11)
Secretary of State
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
this bill permits members of the military, their spouses
and dependents who are temporarily living outside of
California to submit their ballots electronically. The
ballots are 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.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The SOS asserts by allowing
voters to return their ballots by e-mail, this bill
introduces 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."
DLW:do 5/20/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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