BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2028
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2028 (Mullin) - As Amended: April 28, 2014
SUBJECT : All-mailed ballot elections: San Mateo County.
SUMMARY : Authorizes San Mateo County to participate in an
ongoing pilot project that allows certain elections to be
conducted entirely by mailed ballot. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows San Mateo County to join a pilot program currently
underway in Yolo County, under which Yolo County is permitted
to conduct all-mailed ballot elections on up to three
different dates through January 1, 2018, subject to certain
conditions and reporting requirements.
2)Modifies one of the conditions of the pilot program such that
the number of ballot dropoff locations required to be provided
at an all-mailed ballot election is either one location per
city or one location per 100,000 residents, whichever results
in more dropoff locations, instead of one location per city.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows elections held on no more than three different dates in
Yolo County to be conducted wholly by mail, as part of a pilot
project lasting through January 1, 2018, subject to the
following conditions:
a) The governing body of the city, county, or district, by
resolution, authorizes the all-mailed ballot election and
notifies the Secretary of State (SOS) of its intent to
conduct an all-mailed ballot election at least 88 days
prior to the date of the election;
b) The election does not occur on the same date as a
statewide primary or general election or any other election
conducted in an overlapping jurisdiction that is not
consolidated and conducted as an all-mailed ballot
election, and is not a special election to fill a vacancy
in a state office, the Legislature, or Congress;
c) At least one ballot dropoff location is provided in each
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city within the jurisdiction and is open during business
hours to receive voted ballots beginning 28 days before the
date of the election and until 8 p.m. on the day of the
election;
d) At least one polling place is provided per city where
voters can request a ballot between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on
the day of the election if they need a replacement ballot;
e) The elections official delivers to each voter all
supplies necessary for the use and return of the mail
ballot, including an envelope for the return of the voted
mail ballot with postage prepaid;
f) The elections official posts on the Web site of the
county elections office and delivers to each voter, with
either the sample ballot or with the voter's ballot, a list
of the ballot dropoff locations and polling places
provided; and,
g) The polling places provided are at accessible locations
and are equipped with voting units or systems that are
accessible to individuals with disabilities.
2)Requires, if Yolo County conducts an all-mailed ballot
election pursuant to the pilot project described above, that
the county report to the Legislature and to the SOS regarding
the success of the election. Requires the report to include,
but not be limited to, statistics on the cost to conduct the
election; the turnout of different populations, including, but
not limited to, the population categories of race, ethnicity,
age, gender, disability, permanent vote by mail (VBM) status,
and political party affiliation, to the extent possible; the
number of ballots that were not counted and the reasons why
they were rejected; voter fraud; and, any other problems that
became known to the county during the election or canvass.
Requires the report, whenever possible, to compare the success
of the all-mailed ballot election to similar elections not
conducted wholly by mail in the same jurisdiction. Requires
the report to be submitted to the Legislature within six
months after the date of an all-mailed ballot election or
prior to the date of any other all-mailed ballot election
conducted pursuant to the pilot project, whichever is sooner.
3)Permits an election to be conducted wholly by mail if the
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governing body authorizes the use of mailed ballots for the
election, the election occurs on an established mailed ballot
election date, and the election is one of the following:
a) An election in which no more than 1,000 registered
voters are eligible to participate;
b) An election in a city, county, or district with 5,000 or
fewer registered voters that is restricted to the
imposition of special taxes, expenditure limitation
overrides, or both;
c) An election on the issuance of a general obligation
water bond;
d) An election in one of four specifically enumerated water
districts; or,
e) An election or assessment ballot proceeding required or
authorized by the state constitution under Proposition 218.
4)Authorizes a city with a population of 100,000 or less or a
school district to conduct any special election held to fill a
vacancy as an all-mailed ballot election.
5)Authorizes a district to conduct any election as an all-mailed
ballot election on any date other than an established election
date.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
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COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill :
In recent years, the percentage of California voters
who cast mail-in ballots has increased dramatically,
and it is especially great in special elections. Last
year more than 80% of voters cast their ballots by
mail in some cases. At the same time, these special
elections see abysmal turnout levels, at times dipping
below 10% of eligible voters.
Research from the University of California San Diego
indicates that when special elections are conducted by
mail, turnout levels increase by close to eight
percentage points in California. An increase of this
magnitude could mean nearly doubling turnout rates in
some jurisdictions. In addition, the policy has the
potential to save taxpayer dollars because mail-ballot
elections typically cost much less than traditional
polling place elections.
In 2011 the legislature authorized a pilot project to
examine the effects of vote-by-mail elections on
turnout levels in special elections. The project only
applied to one rural county, and it capped the number
of mail-in elections at three; it is set to expire in
2018. Last year, elections were conducted on one out
of the three total permissible election dates, and a
subsequent election report demonstrated no significant
increase or decrease in turnout, even when turnout
levels were broken down by ethnicity. The report did,
however, indicate a total cost-savings of about 43%.
In the end, it called for more data on all-mail
elections in California.
Because there are only two permissible all-mail
special election dates left under the pilot, the
legislature should expand the program to gather more
data. In doing so, an urban county should be included
to contrast the rural county that is already part of
the program. San Mateo County is a great candidate: it
is an urban county and, as a charter county, it
already conducts some special elections by mail, so an
all-mail infrastructure is already in place. By adding
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San Mateo County to the pilot, AB 2028 proposes a
modest program expansion.
2)Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting : Under state
law, any voter can request a VBM ballot for any election, and
any voter can become a permanent VBM voter. Permanent VBM
voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail for every
election, without the need to re-apply for a VBM ballot. As
such, any voter who prefers to vote by mail has the ability to
do so under existing law.
Among the arguments that supporters of all-mailed ballot
elections frequently make in support of such elections is that
all-mailed ballot elections are more convenient for voters.
However, it is not clear whether this is the case. Any voter
who finds it more convenient to vote by mail has the option to
do so under existing law, and voters who want to vote by mail
at every election can sign up for permanent VBM status. Some
voters, due to physical disability or language issues, may
prefer to vote at the polls in order to take advantage of
access or help provided by electronic voting machines or
bilingual poll workers.
3)Yolo County Pilot Project : In 2011, the Legislature approved
and the Governor signed AB 413 (Yamada), Chapter 187, Statutes
of 2011, which created a pilot program allowing Yolo County to
conduct local elections on not more than three dates as
all-mailed ballot elections. AB 413 was intended to serve as
a pilot project to evaluate the desirability of further
expanding the circumstances under which elections are
permitted to be conducted as all-mailed ballot elections.
Yolo County conducted all-mailed ballot elections last March
in the City of Davis and the Washington Unified School
District as permitted by AB 413, and submitted its report on
those elections last December. The pilot project in Yolo
County was authorized following a prior pilot project in
Monterey County that failed to provide useful information
about the impacts of all-mailed ballot elections because the
report filed by Monterey County as part of the pilot project
lacked much of the information that was necessary to evaluate
the impacts of the pilot project.
The report prepared in connection with the first two elections
conducted in Yolo County under the pilot project found that
turnout at the all-mailed ballot elections conducted as part
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of the pilot project was not significantly different than
similar polling place elections held in the two jurisdictions
in prior years. The study also found that turnout rates
broken down by age, ethnic background, party preference, and
permanent VBM status was consistent and similar between the
polling place and the all-mailed ballot elections. The study
found that data provided on the cost to conduct all-mailed
ballot elections was inconclusive in determining whether there
are significant savings to moving to all-mailed ballot
elections. However, the study also cautioned that Davis-one
of the jurisdictions in which the pilot was conducted-"is a
relatively affluent, homogenous community with a higher level
of educational achievement than most other areas of the state"
and so the results "are not necessarily applicable to other,
dissimilar communities." The report also noted that the
effects of all-mailed ballot elections on turnout would not
necessarily be similar in general elections.
Yolo County is permitted to conduct local elections as
all-mailed ballot elections on two additional dates before the
conclusion of the pilot project.
4)United States Postal Service Facility Closures and Mail
Delays : In 2012, this committee and the Senate Elections and
Constitutional Amendments Committee held a joint oversight
hearing to discuss United States Postal Service (USPS)
facility closures and the impact on voters and upcoming
elections. During the hearing, state and county elections
officials testified about the impact that recent post office
and processing facility closures had on their jurisdictions
and on local elections, as well as the anticipated challenges
with more closures expected.
According to testimony from elections officials, one of the most
significant impacts those closures had on the election process
is that there had been significant delays in mail delivery in
some circumstances. Elections officials from counties that
were previously served by closed facilities indicated that
some first class mail took five to seven days to arrive after
closures of USPS facilities, compared to the usual delivery
time of one to three days. Since that hearing, the USPS has
announced further plans for changes in mail delivery
procedures that also have the potential to delay mail
delivery. Finally, the USPS and Congress have considered
proposals to end Saturday mail delivery as a way to cut costs.
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The committee may wish to consider whether it is appropriate to
permit all-mail ballot elections to be used in a broader range
of circumstances when closures and operational changes by the
USPS may result in mail delivery delays, and otherwise make
mail delivery less reliable.
5)Related Legislation : AB 1873 (Gonzalez and Mullin), which is
also being heard in this committee today, allows special
elections to fill vacancies in the Legislature and Congress to
be conducted entirely by mailed ballot, and allows any city or
county special election to be conducted entirely by mailed
ballot, among other provisions.
6)Previous Legislation : SB 304 (Kehoe) of 2011 would have
authorized elections in San Diego County to be conducted
wholly by mail until January 1, 2016, if specified conditions
were satisfied. SB 304 was never heard in committee.
SB 1102 (Liu) of 2010 would have permitted a special primary or
run-off election to fill a legislative or congressional
vacancy to be conducted wholly by mail provided that the board
of supervisors of each county within the affected jurisdiction
authorized the all-mail ballot election. SB 1102 was never
brought up for vote on the Senate Floor.
AB 1681 (Yamada) of 2010 was similar to AB 413. AB 1681 was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who expressed concern that
"with limited options to vote in-person citizens-especially
poor, elderly, and disabled voters-would not have sufficient
opportunity to vote."
AB 1228 (Yamada) of 2009 was similar to AB 1681, except that AB
1228 would have allowed both Yolo and Santa Clara Counties to
participate in the all-mail ballot pilot project. AB 1228 was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger for the same reasons stated
in his veto message of AB 1681 above.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State Association of Counties
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
Urban Counties Caucus
AB 2028
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Opposition
Disability Rights California (unless amended) (prior version)
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094