Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Election Administration topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Measure to shorten county canvass from 30 to 10 days draws opposition; committee holds the bill
Summary
SB 407 would shorten the county post‑election canvass period from 30 days to 10 days. Supporters argued it would speed certification and public confidence; opponents including the League of Women Voters and ACLU said the change risks accuracy and disenfranchisement. No motion was recorded; the bill remained in committee.
Senate Bill 407, authored by Senator A. Choi, proposes reducing California’s county post‑election canvassing period from 30 days to 10 days. The committee received testimony both supporting and opposing the change but did not move the bill and left it in committee.
Proponents argued that the current 30‑day canvass contributes to prolonged result reporting and national embarrassment over slow results; they urged counties to operate sequential processing and use technology or additional staffing to meet a 10‑day window. The Election Integrity Project California testified in favor and asked the committee to work with the author on additional code changes to achieve the faster timeline.
Opponents, notably Dora Rose of the League of Women Voters and witnesses from the ACLU, said the full canvas requires careful signature verification, duplication of damaged ballots, cure periods for mismatched or missing signatures, and post‑count risk-limiting audits — tasks that take time and trained staff. They warned that compressing the timeline to 10 days would increase error risk and could result in certification of incomplete results.
Committee members acknowledged the desire to accelerate results but stressed the tradeoff with accuracy and the operational realities of large counties. With no motion made, SB 407 remained in committee for further consideration and potential negotiation with related bills.
