BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 2177 (Brown) - Early Voting
Amended: July 1, 2014 Policy Vote: E&CA 5-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2177 requires local election officials, upon
securing sufficient funding, to establish early voting locations
to vote-by-mail voters.
Fiscal Impact:
Minor costs to the Secretary of State (General Fund)
Unknown, at least $580,000 annually in years where
statewide elections are held (General Fund)
Unknown, potentially significant costs to provide voter
notification (General Fund)
The exact costs for establishing early voting locations will be
dependent on the number of days each county opts to establish a
location. Costs will result from staffing, materials, and
facility expenses. If each county opens a location on one
Saturday and one Sunday at costs of $5,000 each day, the total
costs of early voting locations would be $580,000. These costs
could be considerably higher if larger counties opt to have
multiple Saturday voting locations, or if any county chooses to
extend the early voting hours beyond the 6 hour minimum required
in this bill. Additionally, there could be substantial costs to
notify voters about the new Saturday voting option depending on
how that notification is provided. A separate mailing would be
very costly; however, posting the information on the county
website would result in minimal costs.
AB 2177 authorizes county elections officials to apply to the
Secretary of State for funding that will come out of the Help
America Vote Act (HAVA) account. While there is currently $131
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million in the HAVA fund, $103 million has already been
allocated for establishing the VoteCal database. Of the
remaining funds, it is estimated that $5 -$6 million will be
required for annual maintenance and operational costs. When the
money in the HAVA Account is depleted, these annual costs will
be borne by the state's General Fund. Therefore, using the HAVA
money for purposes of early voting, will create pressure on the
General Fund for VoteCal operational expenses sooner.
Last year the Bureau of State Audits called on the Secretary of
State to investigate with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
about whether the Legislature could spend the HAVA funds before
the VoteCal project is completed and operational. The DOJ's
response was that the money could not be spent until VoteCal is
fully operational.
Background: Existing law permits any voter to cast a
vote-by-mail ballot in person at the office of the elections
official beginning on the 29th day prior to an election, until
the close of polls on elections day. Elections officials are
permitted to offer early voting at "satellite locations" of the
office of the elections official, and may offer voting on
weekends or times beyond regular office hours.
According to information from a survey of county elections
officials conducted by
the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters and other information
gathered by
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee staff, it appears
that at least 28
counties, representing 89% of registered voters in California,
offered early voting for at
least one weekend day prior to the November 2012 Presidential
General Election. In addition, at least eleven counties,
representing more than 56% of registered voters in California,
provided weekend voting opportunities that would have complied
with the requirements of this bill.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 33
states (including California) and the District of Columbia
permit any qualified voter to cast a ballot in person during a
designated period prior to elections day with no excuse or
justification required. At least 12 of the 33 early voting
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states require that early vote centers be open on at least one
Saturday or Sunday during the early voting period, while others
(including California) give local officials the authority to
determine the hours for early voting.
Proposed Law: AB 2177 authorizes local election officials to
obtain funding from any private or public source including
applying to the Secretary of State for funding from the federal
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) funds. The early voting
provisions will be effective January 1, 2016, and any county
that does not secure adequate funding is not obligated to
comply.
Additionally, AB 2177 does the following:
a) Requires the Secretary of State to provide guidance to local
elections officials in establishing locations for early voting,
notifying voters of the early voting locations, and ensuring
that the locations comply with disability access requirements
under federal and state law.
b) If sufficient funding is provided to the counties, early
voting locations must be established (which may include the
office of the local elections official) on at least one Saturday
and Sunday.
c) Authorizes early voting for statewide elections or any other
election as determined by the elections official.
d) Requires each early voting location that is established on
Saturdays or Sundays to be open a minimum of six hours, but
allows the elections official to determine the hours of
operation.
"Early voting" is defined as voting a vote by mail ballot in
person at the office of the elections official or another
location designated by the elections official either before or
on the day of the election.
Related Legislation: SB 637 (Yee) of 2013 would have, among
other provisions,
required early voting on at least one Saturday for statewide
elections. SB 637 was held on this committee's Suspense File.
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Staff Comments: The Help America Vote Act was signed into law
by President Bush on October 29, 2002. To address irregularities
in voting systems that came to light in 2000, HAVA provided
federal funding to the states to implement a statewide voter
registration system, replace punch card voting machines, improve
voter education and poll worker training, permit voters to cast
provisional ballots, and to require at least one voting machine
per polling place to allow voters with disabilities to vote
privately and independently. To be eligible to receive HAVA
funding, each state was required to submit a state plan to the
federal government that would serve as a blueprint to meet the
requirements of HAVA.
Any HAVA funds remaining after VoteCal's implementation are to
be used for
the projects $5-6 million annual maintenance and operations
costs in the years
immediately following the expected implementation in June 2016.
Once the remaining HAVA funds are spent, all VoteCal expenses
will be paid from the General Fund.
Existing law authorized uses of the HAVA funding other than
implementation of the statewide voter database are as follows:
1) Accessibility : There is approximately $2.5 million available
- this authorization expires in September 2016 but the funds are
expected to be exhausted before that date; and 2) Voting
Systems : This account began with $195 million of which $60
million is currently left but all funds are already earmarked to
reimburse counties to update their voting systems.
Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends an amendment to make
any use of HAVA funding for the purposes of early voting
contingent upon enactment of the statewide database VoteCal to
ensure that sufficient funds remain available until the database
is completely launched, and to avoid potential violations of
federal law regarding the use of the HAVA money. Also AB 2177
should require any request for the use of HAVA funds to be for
federally allowable purposes.
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