Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Election Integrity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee clears bill to clarify certification duty, criminalize misleading return envelopes and ensure voter guides in jails
Summary
AB 331, authored by Assemblymember Pellerin, was passed by the Assembly Elections Committee; the bill clarifies certification duties, bars misleading unofficial ballot return envelopes, and requires voter guides be deliverable to jails in an acceptable format.
AB 331, authored by Assemblymember Pellerin, was approved by the Assembly Elections Committee and re-referred to the Committee on Public Safety. The bill contains three main elements: it clarifies that an elections official’s duty to certify and report election results is ministerial and nondiscretionary; it makes distributing misleading unofficial ballot return envelopes a criminal offense; and it requires that state and county voter information guides delivered to jails be in a format acceptable to jail administrators so that detained registered voters receive them.
Tiffany Brokaw, deputy attorney general, testified on behalf of Attorney General Rob Bonta and said the bill “clarify[s] and strengthen[s] California's election laws” by addressing delayed certification trends that have appeared in other states and by ensuring jailed voters receive voter guides in a usable format. Brokaw said the bill’s jail-delivery language was drafted to be flexible to allow case-by-case accommodation where staples or other binding methods are not accepted in certain facilities.
Tim Cromartie, deputy secretary of state for legislation, spoke for Secretary of State Shirley Weber and expressed concerns about the bill’s provision that could require the Secretary of State to assume custody of county election materials and carry out a county’s canvass duties. Cromartie said the Secretary of State’s office does not currently have the systems, secure facilities or trained staff to perform ballot tabulation and signature verification on behalf of a county and that the authors and the Attorney General’s office were working with the Secretary of State to address implementation issues.
Committee members and the author said they would continue to work with the Secretary of State’s office and county elections officials to refine the bill language and that the intent is to preserve timely certification and to deter misleading conduct that could misdirect ballots. The committee voted to pass AB 331 and re-refer it to Public Safety.
