Legislative Action Bulletin:  October 20, 2011

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The California Report

California's Legislature adjourned on Sept. 9, leaving just seven states currently in regular session. A total of 44 elections bills were introduced in California this year. Eighteen were enacted, four were vetoed, three failed, and the remaining 19 were carried over to the 2012 session. Carry-over bills must pass their house of origin by Jan. 31, 2012, to remain alive in the 2012 session.

New election laws in California this year include:

• AB 80: Consolidates the presidential primary with the June state primary.
• AB 84: Facilitates registration and voting by new U.S. citizens.
• AB 413: Authorizes a mail voting pilot program in Yolo County.
• AB 459: Enters California in the National Popular Vote compact.
• AB 547: Makes it a misdemeanor for a caregiver to coerce or deceive an elderly person into voting contrary to the person’s intent.
• AB 754: Permits a person deployed on active military service outside the United States to have candidacy papers filed by an attorney-in-fact.
• AB 1343: Requires that a permanent absentee voter be removed from the permanent absentee voter list if s/he fails to return a mail ballot in four consecutive statewide general elections.
• AB 1357: Permits county election officials to make affidavit of registration forms available online.
• SB 397: Requires the secretary of state and the Department of Motor Vehicles to develop a process and infrastructure that would permit online voter registration.

The four vetoed bills were:

• AB 293, establishing a free access system allowing voters to determine whether their ballot was counted
• SB 88, requiring that a phonetic transliteration of a candidate's alphabet-based name be provided whenever a translation of the candidate's name into a character-based language is provided on ballot materials
• SB 199, permitting a voter to return a voted mail ballot to any polling place in the state
• SB 205, prohibiting per-registrant payment in voter registration drives.

The Electoral College:  New Attention to an Old Idea

During the past several years, most of the legislation addressing the Electoral College has proposed that states join the National Popular Vote (NPV) compact. In fact, every state legislature in the country has considered an NPV bill at some point during the period 2006-2011. So far, eight states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact, giving it 132 of the 270 electoral votes needed to take effect.

This year, attention has turned once again to an idea that had faded from view in recent years: moving from the winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes to the district system. Under the winner-take-all system, currently used in 48 states, all of a state’s electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the state’s popular vote. Maine and Nebraska use the district system, whereby one electoral vote is awarded to the candidate who wins the popular vote in each congressional district; the remaining two votes go to the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote.

Pennsylvania has attracted media attention in 2011 with its proposal to switch to the district system. While the bill has been controversial, Pennsylvania has actually quietly considered similar legislation during three of the five past biennial legislative sessions, including the 2009-2010 session. Wisconsin also made the news recently. A district system bill apparently is circulating there but has not yet been introduced. Other states with district system bills this year are Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, South Carolina and Washington. A bill pending in Nebraska would switch the state back to the winner-take-all system. All of these bills remain pending in 2011 or have carried over to 2012.

In the period 2001-2010, at least 150 bills proposing a switch to the district system were introduced in state legislatures. The annual tally decreased sharply after 2006, however, when the National Popular Vote movement began to gain steam.

Session News

The seven legislatures currently in session meet throughout the year, although it is common for them to be in recess during the last few months of the year. The seven year-round legislatures are:

• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New Jersey
• New York
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Wisconsin

By the Numbers

For More Information

Contact NCSL's elections staff at 303-364-7700.