BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2562
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2562 (Fong)
As Amended August 18, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 15, 2014) |SENATE: |33-0 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
SUMMARY : Makes various minor and technical changes to
provisions of law governing elections. Specifically, this bill :
1)Clarifies that the number of signatures needed on a petition
to require a special election to fill a vacancy in a trustee
area on a school or community college district board is based
on the number of registered voters in the trustee area, rather
than on the number of registered voters in the entire school
or community college district.
2)Specifies that an incomplete or inaccurate apartment or unit
number in the residence address of a signer of an election
petition or paper shall not invalidate that person's
signature.
3)Makes various conforming changes to provisions of law
governing the voter registration process to reflect the
existence of online voter registration.
4)Deletes a requirement for county elections officials to submit
an annual report to the Secretary of State (SOS) detailing
information about district elections held in the county.
5)Corrects various erroneous cross-references in the Elections
Code, and makes other technical and conforming changes.
The Senate amendments :
1)Provide that a person who is appointed to fill a vacancy on a
school or community college district board holds office until
the next regularly scheduled election for district governing
board members that is scheduled at least 130 days after the
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effective date of the vacancy, instead of holding office until
the next regularly scheduled election for district governing
board members.
2)Clarify that a city elections official must transmit ballot
arguments in support of a ballot measure to the opponents of
the measure, and arguments in opposition of the measure to the
supporters of the measure, once the arguments that will be
printed in the ballot pamphlet have been selected, rather than
when they have been received.
3)Move the date under which a voting system had to be submitted
for federal qualification in order for that system to be
subject to state testing requirements that existed prior to
the enactment of SB 360 (Padilla), Chapter 602, Statutes of
2013, from August 1, 2013, to September 1, 2013.
4)Add double-jointing language in order to avoid chaptering
problems with SB 113 (Jackson) of the current legislative
session and delete a provision of the bill that made a
technical change in order to avoid chaptering problems with AB
1311 (Bradford) of the current legislative session.
FISCAL EFFECT : None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "This elections omnibus bill
contains various minor and technical changes to provisions of
the Elections Code. All of the provisions of this bill are
either changes requested by the California Association of Clerks
and Election Officials (CACEO), the SOS, or the City Clerks
Association of California (CCAC), or are technical changes
identified and suggested by [the] Assembly Elections and
Redistricting Committee staff."
The Senate amendments added three new substantive provisions to
this omnibus bill.
First, the Senate amendments provide that when a person is
appointed to fill a vacancy on a school or community college
district board, that person holds office until the next
regularly scheduled election for district governing board
members that is scheduled at least 130 days after the effective
date of the vacancy. Under existing law, an appointee holds the
seat only until the next regularly scheduled election for
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district governing board members, regardless of how soon that
election will be held. This change is necessary, because it may
not be possible logistically to add an additional contest to the
ballot for the upcoming election if a vacancy occurs shortly
before a scheduled election.
Second, the Senate amendments clarify that a city elections
official must transmit copies of arguments in favor of a city
measure to the opponents of the measure, and in opposition to a
city measure to the proponents of the measure, once the
arguments that will be printed in the ballot pamphlet have been
selected, rather than when those arguments are received.
Because multiple arguments may be received by the city elections
official, and because arguments can be withdrawn up until the
deadline for filing ballot arguments, the official cannot know
which arguments will be the official arguments that will be
included in election materials until after the deadline has
passed for submitting arguments. This provision was requested
by CCAC.
Finally, the Senate amendments move the date under which a
voting system had to be submitted for federal qualification in
order for that system to be subject to state testing
requirements that existed prior to the enactment of SB 360. SB
360 significantly modified the procedures for the certification
of voting systems that are used in elections held in the state.
To prevent voting system vendors from rushing systems into
testing so that those systems would not need to comply with the
new testing requirements, SB 360 permitted a voting system that
was submitted for federal qualification before August 1, 2013,
to be submitted for state approval under the state's voting
system certification requirements that were in place prior to
the approval of SB 360. The August 1 date, however, was also
intended to ensure that voting system upgrades that were ready
for testing could move forward under the voting system rules in
place at the time. However, one set of voting system equipment
that was being prepared for federal testing was not submitted
for federal qualification until late August 2013. A number of
counties are interested in upgrading components of their voting
systems with that equipment. This provision was requested by
CACEO.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094FN: 0004954
AB 2562
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