Reply #3: CA: Legislative Analysis of Senator Bowen’s Bill – Signed by Gov.

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LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS OF BOWEN’S BILL ON PAPER BALLOTS,

SENATE BILL 370 -- SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR


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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 370|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|[phone] Fax: (916) | |
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS


Bill No: SB 370
Author: Bowen (D)
Amended: 6/27/05
Vote: 21


SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMDMTS. COMM. : 6-0, 4/6/05
AYES: Bowen, Battin, Dunn, Murray, Poochigian, Romero

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8

SENATE FLOOR : 35-0, 4/25/05
AYES: Aanestad, Ackerman, Alarcon, Alquist, Ashburn,
Battin, Bowen, Cedillo, Chesbro, Cox, Denham, Ducheny,
Dutton, Escutia, Figueroa, Florez, Hollingsworth, Kehoe,
Kuehl, Lowenthal, Machado, Maldonado, Margett,
McClintock, Migden, Ortiz, Perata, Poochigian, Romero,
Runner, Scott, Simitian, Speier, Torlakson, Vincent
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campbell, Dunn, Morrow, Murray, Soto

ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 57-19, 8/25/05 - See last page for vote


SUBJECT : Elections

SOURCE : Author


DIGEST : This bill provides that on a direct recording
electronic voting system, the electronic record of each
vote shall be considered the official record of the vote,
except that the voter-verified paper audit trail shall be
the official paper audit record and shall be used in the
CONTINUED





SB 370
Page
2

manual tally and any recount, as specified.

Assembly Amendments delete the present size provisions of
the Senate version and make clarifying changes.

ANALYSIS :

Use of Paper Record Copies of Ballots

Existing law requires, as of January 1, 2006, that all
direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems must
include an accessible voter verified paper audit trail
(AVVPAT) that prints a contemporaneous paper record copy of
each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm
his/her selections before casting their ballot.

Existing law provides that during the official canvass of
every election, the elections official must conduct a
public manual tally of the ballots cast in one percent or
more of the precincts chosen at random, as specified. This
manual tally is performed to check the accuracy of the
votes tabulated by electronic or mechanical voting systems.

This bill provides that on a DRE voting system, the
electronic record of each vote shall be considered the
official record of the vote, except that the paper record
copy of each electronic ballot shall be used for conducting
the one percent manual tally and any recount.

Existing law provides that a recount of votes cast for any
candidates or ballot measures may be conducted by the
elections official, requested by any voter, or ordered by
any court, as specified. For a recount of an election in
which the votes were recorded by an electronic system, the
voter requesting the recount may select whether the recount
is conducted manually, by means of the voting system used
originally, or both.

This bill provides that for purposes of DRE voting systems,
"conducted manually" means that either the paper record
copies or the voter verified paper audit trail of the
electronically recorded vote are counted manually, as
selected by the voter who requests the recount.








SB 370
Page
3

Over 20 percent of the registered voters statewide have
enrolled as permanent absent voters, and in some counties,
that number exceeds 40 percent. Polling place and poll
worker acquisition is often cited by elections officials as
one of their most difficult and expensive tasks.
Subtracting the permanent absent voters (who will not be
going to the polls anyway) from the number of registered
voters allowed in each precinct will reduce the overall
number of precincts in any given jurisdiction. A smaller
number of precincts will naturally mean fewer polling
places and poll workers will be needed to conduct an
election. The net effect of this bill depends entirely on
the number and geographic distribution of permanent absent
voters within each local jurisdiction.

A common criticism of DRE voting systems is that there is
no way for a voter or an elections official to verify the
device accurately recorded the intent of the voter. Now
that all DRE voting systems in California will be required
to have an AVVPAT, these paper record copies can also be
used to verify the results of machine tabulations and serve
to determine voter intent for manual recounts.

FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes

OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/25/05)

California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
Secretary of State

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "if the
purpose of the 1% manual count is to try to verify the
accuracy of the vote, it just makes sense to use the paper
receipts on the machines to verify the accuracy of
the machines and the votes at the same time. That way,
elections officials will be able to verify whether the DRE
was recording the same information electronically and on
the paper receipt, though there is no way to determine if
it was accurately recording the voter's vote."

On January 21, 2005, then-Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
issued final standards for the use of VVPATs in DRE voting
machines. This bill enacts into statute one of the







SB 370
Page
4

standards for the use of VVPATs, that the paper record copy
of the ballots cast on a DRE shall be used to conduct the
1% manual recount of ballots cast and any manual recount
requested by a voter.

ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Association of
Clerks and Election Officials oppose the bill as drafted
and invites the Senate to join in working with the
Secretary of State to draft comprehensive procedures for
the one percent manual tally.


ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Arambula, Baca, Bass, Berg, Bermudez, Blakeslee,
Bogh, Calderon, Canciamilla, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn,
Coto, De La Torre, Dymally, Evans, Frommer, Garcia,
Goldberg, Hancock, Jerome Horton, Shirley Horton,
Houston, Jones, Karnette, Keene, Klehs, Koretz, Laird,
Leno, Leslie, Levine, Lieber, Liu, Matthews, Montanez,
Mullin, Nakanishi, Nation, Nava, Oropeza, Parra, Pavley,
Richman, Ridley-Thomas, Ruskin, Saldana, Salinas,
Strickland, Torrico, Umberg, Vargas, Villines, Wolk,
Wyland, Yee
NOES: Aghazarian, Benoit, Cogdill, Daucher, DeVore,
Emmerson, Harman, Haynes, Huff, La Malfa, La Suer, Maze,
McCarthy, Mountjoy, Niello, Plescia, Spitzer, Tran,
Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Negrete McLeod, Sharon Runner, Nunez,
Vacancy


DLW:mel 8/26/05 Senate Floor Analyses

SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE

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