BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1170
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 15, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1170 (Donnelly) - As Amended: January 6, 2014
SUBJECT : Primary elections: party qualification.
SUMMARY : Provides that a political party is qualified to
participate in a primary election if there was polled for anyone
of its candidates, for any office voted on throughout the state,
at least two percent of the entire vote of the state at the last
preceding gubernatorial "primary" election, instead of the last
preceding gubernatorial "general" election.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a primary election under any of the following conditions:
a) If, at the last preceding gubernatorial election, there
was polled for any one of its candidates for any office
voted on through the state, at least two percent of the
entire vote of the state;
b) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, it appears to the Secretary of State (SOS), as a
result of examining and totaling the statement of voters
and their political affiliations transmitted to the SOS by
county elections officials, that voters equal in number to
at least one percent of the entire vote of the state at the
last preceding gubernatorial election have declared their
intention to affiliate with that party; or,
c) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, there is filed with the SOS a petition signed by
voters equal in number to 10 percent of the entire vote of
the state at the last preceding gubernatorial election,
declaring that they represent a proposed party, the name of
which shall be stated in the petition, which proposed party
those voters desire to have participate in that primary
election.
2)Requires each political party to have its qualifications
reviewed by the SOS upon the occurrence of the gubernatorial
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election. Provides that a party that does not meet the
standards for qualification, as described above, shall be
prohibited from participating in any primary election.
Requires a party that loses qualification, but seeks to regain
that qualification, to file a notice with the SOS indicating
that it intends to regain qualification.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed nonfiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
With the recent change to the "top two" General Election,
third party candidates are not reaching the November
General Election ballot. As such, third parties cannot use
subsection a of Elections code 5100 to maintain ballot
access status. AB 1170 will make a simple, technical fix to
move that qualification from the Gubernatorial General
Election ballot to the Gubernatorial Primary Election
ballot.
2)How to Qualify as a Political Party : Current law permits a
political body to use one of two methods to qualify as a
political party. The first method is the voter registration
method. In order to qualify a new political party by the
voter registration method, current law requires that a number
of voters equal to one percent of the votes cast at the last
gubernatorial election complete an affidavit of registration,
on which they have disclosed a preference for the political
body intending to qualify as a political party, by writing in
the name of the political body. A political body which seeks
to qualify via the voter registration method for the June 2014
primary election must have 103,004 voters registered as
disclosing a preference for that political body.
The second method used to qualify as a new political party is
by petition. In order to qualify as a new political party by
petition, current law requires the SOS, no later than 135 days
prior to the primary election, to determine if a political
body intending to qualify has collected petition signatures of
registered voters that equal in number to 10 percent of the
votes cast at the last gubernatorial election. In order for a
political party to qualify for the June 2014 primary election,
it must collect 1,030,040 valid petition signatures of
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registered voters.
3)Maintaining Qualified Political Party Status : Once a
political party has qualified, current law permits the party
to maintain its qualified status by retaining registrants
representing at least 1/15 of one percent of the total state
registrations and either having one of its statewide
candidates receive at least two percent of the entire vote of
the state for that office at the preceding gubernatorial
election or retaining statewide registrations equaling at
least one percent of the total votes cast at the preceding
gubernatorial election.
This bill makes changes to one of the methods in which a
political party uses to maintain their qualified political
party status. This bill provides that a political party is
qualified if one of its statewide candidates receives at least
two percent of the entire vote of the state for that office at
the last preceding gubernatorial primary election, instead of
the last preceding gubernatorial general election. According
to the author's statement, the "top two" primary election
system makes it difficult for third party candidates to reach
the general election for statewide offices and consequently,
third parties are unable to utilize this method to maintain
their qualified political party status. This bill, which
moves the qualification test from the preceding general
election to the preceding primary election will address this
issue and allow third parties that want to use this
qualification test the opportunity to continue to do so.
4)"Top Two" Primary : In February 2009, the Legislature approved
SCA 4 (Maldonado), Res. Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, which was
enacted by the voters as Proposition 14 on the June 2010
statewide primary election ballot. Proposition 14 implemented
a top two primary election system in California for most
elective state and federal offices. At primary elections,
voters are able to vote for any candidate, regardless of
party, and the two candidates who receive the most votes,
regardless of party, advance to the general election.
The implementation of the top two primary system has had a
significant impact on third parties. As mentioned above, only
the top two candidates for most elective state and federal
offices advance to the general election. Under this new
process, it is challenging for a third party candidate for
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statewide office to advance to the general election ballot.
Consequently, it has become impractical for third parties to
maintain their status as qualified political parties based on
the number of votes cast for their candidates for statewide
office at the general election since their candidates
typically will not appear on the general election ballot.
According to the author's office, in an effort to address this
problem this bill allows a political party to maintain its
status if at the last preceding gubernatorial primary
election, instead of the last preceding gubernatorial general
election, that one of its statewide candidates received at
least two percent of the entire vote of the state. In other
words, this bill moves the timing of when the two percent test
occurs, from the preceding gubernatorial general election to
the preceding gubernatorial primary election.
While the changes in this bill may appear to be helpful, it is
unclear whether this approach will alleviate the challenges
third parties face when trying to maintain their political
party qualification status. Moreover, moving the
qualification test from the general election to the primary
election may not be sufficient, as a political party is still
required to reach the two percent threshold. The committee
may wish to consider whether this bill will actually result in
allowing third parties to continue to use this qualification
option.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
Green Party of California (Unless Amended)
Analysis Prepared by : Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094