Last week the Governor signed AB
860 (Berman), which would largely codify the
Governor’s Executive
Order requiring county elections officials to mail a
ballot to every registered voter for this year’s election. The
Order was challenged by Assembly Members James Gallagher of
Nicolaus (Sutter County) and Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer
County), who argued that the Governor had exceeded his authority
in issuing the order. By signing AB 860, Governor Newsom has
placed the all-mail mandate in statute, which puts it on stronger
legal footing.
In addition to sending ballots, the new law requires county
elections officials to use a tracking system to allow a voter to
track their vote by mail ballot, however, it leaves it up to the
county’s discretion if they would like to use the Secretary of
State’s system, or a system that meets the same specifications.
The law extends the deadline for mail ballots to be received for
this year’s election by two weeks, so that all ballots must be
received by the 17th day after Election Day. The law also permits
counties to begin processing ballots on the
29th day before the election, which is 19 days
earlier than was previously allowed, though maintains existing
requirements that a vote count cannot be accessed or
released until 8 p.m. on the day of the
election.
