BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2028|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2028
Author: Mullin (D), et al.
Amended: 4/28/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND. COMM. : 4-0, 6/17/14
AYES: Padilla, Hancock, Jackson, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-23, 5/15/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : All-mailed ballot elections: San Mateo County
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill authorizes San Mateo County to participate
in an ongoing pilot project that allows certain elections to be
conducted entirely by mailed ballot.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.Permits 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
specified conditions.
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 Secretary of
State regarding the success of the election.
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3.Permits an election to be conducted wholly by mail if the
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.
1.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 and authorizes a
district to conduct any election as an all-mailed ballot
election on any date other than an established election date.
This bill:
1.Permits San Mateo County to join the 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 drop-off 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 drop-off locations, instead of one
location per city.
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Background
Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting . Under state
law, any voter can request a vote by mail (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.
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, 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.
Yolo County Pilot Project . The Legislature approved and the
Governor signed AB 413 (Yamada, Ch. 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 of
the pilot project was not significantly different than similar
polling place elections held in the two jurisdictions in prior
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/19/14)
California Association of Code Enforcement Officers
California State Association of Counties
County of San Mateo
Urban Counties Caucus
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The County of San Mateo writes,
"Special elections see abysmal turnout levels, with fewer than
10 percent of voters turning out in some instances. However,
studies have found that turnout increases in special elections
when every voter receives a ballot in the mail, and a
California-specific study found a turnout boost of nearly eight
percentage points under the primarily vote-by-mail system. The
expansion of primarily vote-by-mail elections promises to
further increase voter turnout in some areas. In addition, more
than 50 percent of the state's voters are not voting by mail in
statewide general elections, and the numbers of even higher in
special elections reaching 80 percent in some jurisdictions.
"The expansion of the Yolo County pilot to include San Mateo
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County would also provide for the inclusion of an urban county
in the statewide analysis of the impact that the all-mailed
ballot election had on the turnout of voters by permanent
vote-by-mail status providing the Legislature with a broader
picture of its impact. San Mateo County is the ideal County to
include in the pilot as our permanent vote-by mail numbers
continue to increase year-over-year.
"Given the growing cost of conducting special elections and the
rise of permanent vote-by-mail voters, it is important that
counties be provided with an opportunity to try new and more
efficient ways of conducting elections."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-23, 5/15/14
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,
Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fox,
Frazier, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Holden,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Ch�vez, Conway, Dahle,
Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Roger
Hern�ndez, Jones, Linder, Logue, Maienschein, Melendez,
Nestande, Patterson, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fong, Gorell, Mansoor, John A. P�rez, Salas,
Vacancy
RM:nl 6/20/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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