BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 29
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Date of Hearing: August 13, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 29 (Correa) - As Amended: August 11, 2014
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill allows vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots to be received by
elections officials after election day. Specifically, this bill:
1)Provides that VBM ballots, including those of military and
overseas voters, are timely cast if received by mail or a bona
fide private delivery company no later than three days after
election day and either of the following is satisfied:
a) The ballot is postmarked or time-stamped on or before
election day.
b) If the ballot has no postmark, a postmark with no date,
or an illegible postmark, the VBM identification envelope
is date-stamped by the elections official upon receipt and
signed and dated on or before election day.
2)Allows jurisdictions having the necessary computer capability
to begin processing VBM ballots on the 10th rather than the
7th business day prior to an election.
3)Extends, from 28 days to 30 days after the election, the
deadline for elections officials to submit the certified
statement of election results.
4)Allows counties to use envelopes and other materials that do
not take into account the above changes until supplies are
exhausted.
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor net reimbursable costs or minor net savings.
SB 29
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County elections officials will incur additional costs to
manually check for a postmark on all ballots arriving up to
three days following election day and to date-stamp ballots
received within this timeframe that do not have a postmark. An
unofficial count indicates that more than 20,000 ballots arrived
too late to be counted at the last statewide general election.
At this level, the additional costs to counties statewide would
likely be very minor. As more voters become aware that they may
mail their VBM ballot as late as election day, many more ballots
are likely to arrive after election day, and the additional
costs to counties will increase commensurately. Offsetting these
additional costs, however, are provisions in the bill allowing
counties to begin processing VBM ballots three days earlier and
providing two additional days to certify election results. These
provisions will reduce counties' personnel costs to conduct
every election. The likely net result of this bill is thus
insignificant net costs or savings.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "Late delivery of otherwise
valid ballots has long been a problem but will grow worse
given the U.S. Postal Service's plans to continue closing mail
processing centers. According to estimates, as many as 26,000
mail ballots arrived too late to be counted in California's
November 2010 election - and this was prior to the USPS
cutbacks?Numerous states grant additional time for the arrival
of regular vote-by-mail ballots or military and overseas
ballots."
2)Postal Service Facility Closures and Mail Delays . According to
elections officials, one of the most significant impacts of
recent postal service facility closures on the election
process is significant delays in mail delivery in some
circumstances. Elections officials from counties served by
closed facilities have indicated that some first class mail
has taken five to seven days to arrive after those closures,
compared to the usual delivery time of one to three days.
To the extent that these closures and additional future closures
planned by the USPS result in mail delivery delays, voters who
mail their ballots within a reasonable timeframe could,
through no fault of their own, be disenfranchised.
SB 29
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3)Deadlines in Other States . According to the National
Association of Secretaries of State, three states require mail
ballots from civilians living in the US to be returned prior
to election day in order to be counted, while 36 states
(including California) require such ballots to be received by
election day. Eleven states and the District of Columbia
allow mail ballots from civilians living in the US to arrive
after election day and still be counted as long as the ballot
is postmarked (or in some cases, signed and dated) by election
day.
4)Related Legislation : AB 269 (Grove), pending in Senate
Appropriations, allows the VBM ballot of a military or
overseas voter to arrive up to three days after the election
and still be counted, provided the ballot is postmarked by the
U.S. Postal Service or the Military Postal Service Agency on
or before election day.
5)Prior Legislation : SB 348 (Correa) of 2011, which allowed VBM
ballots to be counted if postmarked by election day and
received by the elections official no later than six days
after the election, was held on Suspense in Senate
Appropriations.
AB 562 (Fong) of 2012, an urgency measure similar to this bill,
failed on concurrence in the Assembly.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081