BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Alex Padilla, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2233 HEARING DATE: 6/24/14
AUTHOR: DONNELLY ANALYSIS BY: Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 5/13/14
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Primary elections: petitions: signatures
DESCRIPTION
Existing law provides for all of the following:
1)Requires a person who seeks to have his or her name printed on
the ballot as a candidate for an office at the direct primary
election to file a declaration of candidacy and nomination
papers.
2)Requires a candidate for specified offices to pay a fee to
file the declaration of candidacy. Provides that the amount
of the fee is established as follows:
a) In the case of United States Senator or any statewide
office, two percent of the first-year salary for the
office;
b) In the case of Representative in Congress, member of the
Board of Equalization, justice of the court of appeal,
state Senator, or Member of the Assembly, one percent of
the first-year salary;
c) In the case of a county or judicial office to be voted
only wholly within one county, one percent of the annual
salary of the office provided, however, no filing fee shall
be charged for any office for which the annual salary is
$2,500 or less.
3)Permits a candidate to submit a petition containing signatures
of registered voters in lieu of paying a filing fee. Allows
any registered voter to sign an in-lieu-filing-fee petition
for any candidate for whom he or she is eligible to vote.
Requires a candidate to collect the following number of
signatures on an in-lieu-filing-fee petition in order to cover
the full amount of the filing fee that is required to be paid:
a) For the office of Member of the Assembly, 1,500
signatures;
b) For the office of state Senate or Representative in
Congress, 3,000 signatures;
c) For statewide office, 10,000 signatures; and,
d) For all other offices for which a filing fee is
required:
i) If the number of registered voters in the district
is 2,000 or more, four signatures for each dollar of the
filing fee or 10 percent of the total of registered
voters in the district, whichever is less; or,
ii) If the number of registered voters in the district
is less than 2,000, four signatures for each dollar of
the filing fee or 20 percent of the total of registered
voters in the district, whichever is less.
4)Provides that if the number of signatures collected on an
in-lieu-filing-fee petition is less than the total number of
signatures needed to cover the filing fee, the filing fee
shall be pro-rated based on the number of signatures collected
on the petition.
5)Permits a candidate to begin soliciting signatures on an
in-lieu-filing-fee petition 45 days before the first day for
circulating nomination papers, and requires an
in-lieu-filing-fee petition to be filed at least 15 days prior
to the close of the nomination period. Requires an elections
official to notify the candidate of any deficiency on the
in-lieu-filing-fee petition within 10 days after receipt of
the petition, and permits a candidate to submit a supplemental
petition or to pay a pro rata portion of the filing fee to
cover any deficiency. Provides that the period for a
candidate to circulate nomination papers to appear on the
ballot at a primary election shall begin 113 days before the
primary election, and shall end 88 days before the primary
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election.
6)Provides that in cases of vacancies for which a special
election is authorized or required to be held to fill the
vacancy, and where the nomination period would commence less
than 45 days after the creation of the vacancy, the forms for
soliciting signatures on an in-lieu-filing-fee petition shall
be made available within five working days after the creation
of the vacancy, at which point a candidate may begin
soliciting signatures on such a petition.
7)Requires the Governor, when a vacancy occurs in the office of
Representative to Congress, or in either house of the
Legislature, to issue a writ of election to fill the vacancy
within 14 calendar days after the occurrence of the vacancy,
except as otherwise provided.
8)Requires a special general election to fill a congressional or
legislative vacancy to be conducted on a Tuesday at least 126
days, but not more than 140 days, following the issuance of
the writ of election, except that the special election may be
conducted within 180 days following the writ in order that the
election or the primary election may be consolidated with the
next regularly scheduled statewide election or local election
occurring wholly or partially within the same territory in
which the vacancy exists, provided that the voters eligible to
vote in the local election comprise at least 50 percent of all
the voters eligible to vote on the vacancy. Requires the
special primary election to be held on either the ninth
Tuesday or the tenth Tuesday prior to the special general
election. Provides that the period for a candidate to
circulate nomination papers to appear on the ballot at the
special primary election shall begin 73 days before the
primary election, and shall end 53 days before the primary
election.
This bill reduces the number of signatures that a candidate
needs at a special vacancy election on a petition in lieu of
paying a filing fee in proportion to any reduction in the amount
of time to collect signatures. Specifically, this bill :
Provides that if the number of days for a candidate to collect
signatures on a petition in lieu of a filing fee for a special
election that is held to fill a vacancy is less than the
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number of days that a candidate would have to collect
signatures on a petition at a regular election for the same
office, the elections official shall reduce the required
number of signatures for the petition by the same proportion
as the reduction in time for the candidate to collect
signatures.
Provides that in determining the proportion of time by which
the period for a candidate to collect signatures has been
reduced, the elections official shall exclude any days
allotted for filing a supplemental petition.
Provides that an in-lieu-filing-fee petition for a special
election held to fill a congressional or legislative vacancy
shall require not less than 100 signatures.
BACKGROUND
Filing Fees and Signatures in Lieu Petitions : California law
requires candidates for many elective offices to pay a filing
fee at the time they obtain nomination papers from the elections
official. Filing fees are intended, in part, to help cover the
administrative costs of conducting the election, but also serve
as a means of limiting the size of the ballot in order to reduce
voter confusion, prevent overwhelming voting systems, and allow
the electorate to focus attention on a smaller number of
candidates in order that elections may better reflect the will
of the majority. Courts have long recognized that states have a
legitimate interest in regulating the number of candidates on
the ballot for these reasons.
At the same time, courts have also found that a state cannot
require candidates to pay a filing fee in order to appear on the
ballot unless the state also provides a reasonable alternative
means of ballot access. In Lubin v. Panish (1974) 415 U.S. 709,
the United States Supreme Court found that a California law that
required certain candidates for office to pay a filing fee in
order to appear on the ballot was unconstitutional because the
law did not provide an alternate means of qualifying for the
ballot for indigent candidates who were unable to pay the fee.
In finding California's filing fee law to be invalid, the court
noted that there were other "obvious and well known means of
testing the 'seriousness' of a candidacy which do not measure
the probability of attracting significant voter support solely
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by the neutral fact of payment of a filing fee," including a
requirement for a candidate who cannot pay the filing fee to
"demonstrate the 'seriousness' of his candidacy by persuading a
substantial number of voters to sign a petition in his behalf."
In response to the Supreme Court's decision in Lubin , the
Legislature enacted and the Governor signed AB 914 (Ray
Gonzales), Ch. 454, Statutes of 1974, an urgency measure that
permitted candidates to file petitions containing the signatures
of a specified number of registered voters in lieu of paying a
filing fee. The number of signatures required to be collected
in lieu of paying a filing fee has remained largely unchanged
since the signatures-in-lieu procedure was originally adopted in
1974, notwithstanding the fact that the number of registered
voters in California has increased by more than 77 percent since
that time.
Special Elections & Candidate Filing Timelines for Affected
Offices : This bill affects only elections for offices for which
candidates are required to pay a filing fee, and for which a
special election is held to fill a vacancy. While local
elective bodies call special elections in some circumstances to
fill vacancies, many such vacancies are filled by appointment.
Additionally, even in cases where a special election is held,
the period for collecting signatures on in-lieu petitions often
is not shortened. This bill, however, frequently will affect
special elections held to fill vacancies in the Legislature and
in the United States House of Representatives.
When a vacancy occurs in the office of Representative to
Congress, or in either house of the Legislature, the Governor is
required to act within 14 calendar days to call a special
election to fill that vacancy, unless the vacancy occurs after
the close of the nomination period in the final year of the term
of office. When calling the special election, the Governor sets
the date of the special runoff election, which generally must be
held between 126 days and 140 days after the date that the
Governor calls the special election, though it can be held as
much as 180 days later when doing so allows for the election to
be consolidated with another election being held in an
overlapping area, subject to certain conditions. The special
primary election is then held either nine or ten weeks prior to
the scheduled special runoff election, as specified by law.
Taking into consideration the amount of time that the Governor
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has to schedule the special election, and the window within
which the runoff election must be scheduled, a special primary
election can occur anywhere between 56 days and 131 days after a
vacancy occurs in the Legislature or Congress. The deadline for
filing nomination papers at a special election in these
circumstances falls 53 days before the special primary election.
In a regular election, candidates have 56 days to collect
signatures on a petition in lieu of a filing fee. Given that a
special vacancy election can occur as soon as 56 days after the
creation of the vacancy, however, the period for collecting
signatures on an in lieu petition at a special vacancy election
can be considerably shorter. In fact, because state law gives
elections officials up to five working days after a vacancy
occurs to make in lieu petitions available, it is theoretically
possible that the deadline for elections officials to make those
petitions available could fall after the deadline for candidates
to file nomination papers. In practice, however, in lieu
petitions are generally made available on the same day that the
Governor calls the special election, if not earlier, and the
deadlines for submitting in lieu petitions are adjusted as
appropriate based on the amount of time available until the
deadline for candidates to file nomination papers. In practice,
for special elections held during the 2013-2014 legislative
session, candidates have had between three and 42 days to
collect signatures on in lieu petitions.
COMMENTS
According to the Author : This is a simple bill that will allow
more access to special elections. Currently, the number of
signatures required in a special election are the same amount
required in a regularly scheduled election, even though the
number of days to collect those signatures is usually far less.
By dropping the number of signatures required in proportion to
the number of days a candidate has to collect those signatures,
we would be allowing the public better access to the ballot.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-0
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Assembly Floor: 70-3
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: California Alliance for Retired Americans
Coalition for Free and Open Elections
Libertarian Party of California
Peace and Freedom Party of California
Oppose: None received
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