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Committee advances bill requiring monitored, secured mail-ballot drop boxes during late early-voting period
Summary
In work session the committee voted to pass Assembly Bill 306, which sets time windows and monitoring requirements for mail-ballot drop boxes in certain counties; the motion passed 3–2.
The Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections voted in work session to pass Assembly Bill 306, a measure that requires county clerks in specified counties to establish a number of mail-ballot drop-box locations for a set period between the end of early voting and the day before election day, and to ensure those drop boxes are monitored and secured.
Pepper Sturm, the committee’s nonpartisan policy analyst, reviewed the bill during the work session. Sturm said the proposed language requires drop boxes “to be monitored at all times when made available for use and secured during any period when not available for use,” and directs the Secretary of State to adopt regulations that set monitoring and security requirements.
Vice Chair Daley moved to do pass on AB306; the motion was seconded by Majority Leader Cannizzaro. Senator Steinbeck announced she would vote no and reserved the right to change on the floor. The committee tally was recorded as 3 in favor and 2 opposed; the clerk announced that AB306 “did pass, 3 in favor and 2 against, Senator Steinbeck reserving his right.” The committee accepted the motion in the work session; no further amendments were recorded during the meeting.
The sponsors and staff framed the bill as clarification of existing practice and as an attempt to standardize time windows and security requirements for drop boxes across counties that meet the measure’s threshold. The work session record shows no additional public testimony; as a work-session action, the committee did not reopen the hearing for new witnesses. The committee chair indicated she would take a floor statement on the bill after committee proceedings.
The committee did not specify in the work session the exact counties covered by the statutory threshold, nor did it attach a fiscal note during the discussion recorded to the hearing excerpt. The Secretary of State’s authority to write implementing regulations was noted as part of the measure.
