CVF-News

CVF-News is a free, electronic newsletter featuring news and updates about the California Voter Foundation's projects and activities.


Bill would weaken California's election verification law if enacted

October 10, 2017

In the final weeks of this year's legislative session, last-minute amendments were made to Assembly Bill 840, authored by Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) which would weaken California's post-election verification law.

Known as the manual tally, this 52-year old law is designed to give voters the ability to verify the accuracy of automated vote counts. Counties are required to select one percent of their precincts at random and recount the ballots in those precincts in public, by hand, and verify that the hand-counted totals match the software-counted totals.

Public meetings scheduled for Aug. 16 & 17

August 15, 2017

This past June, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted to implement the Voter's Choice Act, giving Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine and her staff the green light to move forward on a new plan for voting county-wide.

The Voters Choice Act, or VCA, was enacted in 2016 as Senate Bill 450. This new law allows counties to replace neighborhood polling places with a new voting process where every registered voter is sent a vote-by-mail ballot and provided with county-wide drop boxes and vote centers prior to and on Election Day. 

Voters will be allowed to vote at any vote center within the county and receive other voting services at vote centers such as obtain replacement ballots, register to vote, cast regular ballots, use accessible voting devices, obtain language assistance, or receive any needed assistance.

California election bills to watch 

April 20, 2017

The 2017-18 California legislative session is well underway, and the California Voter Foundation is supporting several bills this year:

  • AB 216: Authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), this bill would require counties to provide postage-paid envelopes to vote-by-mail voters. The bill passed out of the Assembly Elections Committee last month, and CVF president Kim Alexander testified in support. 

As stated in CVF's support letter, this bill is needed to reduce voter confusion about postage costs and to ensure younger voters less familiar with the postal service are not disadvantaged when voting by mail, especially given the likely increase in mail balloting with the implementation of the Voter's Choice Act beginning in several counties next year.

  • SB 568 and AB 84: SB 568 is authored by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and is sponsored by Secretary of State Alex Padilla. The bill, which if enacted would move California's presidential primary to the third Tuesday in March, passed out of the Senate Elections Committee this week on a bipartisan, unanimous vote. To avoid the risk of other states leapfrogging their primaries ahead of California's, the bill also includes a provision that would allow the governor to set the primary date before the third Tuesday in March at least 240 days prior to that date. 

February 23, 1996 to December 6, 2016

A complete archive of past editions of CVF-News, CVF's electronic newsletter, from 1994-2016 can be accessed in the California Voter Foundation Archive

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