State and Local Government Work to Innovate Elections

September is National Voter Registration Month and California is seeing transformative changes and innovation in our election systems, both through county leadership and state policy shifts.

Local elections officials are embracing technology and connecting to voters electronically. Several counties have developed apps that allow voters to check registration status, find polling place and ballot drop-off locations, view sample ballots, and look up other information. Sacramento County won a 2013 CSAC Challenge Award for a mobile application called SACVOTE (announcement here). San Bernardino County recently won a National Association of Election Officials 2015 Eagles Award for its elections app, called My Elections Gateway (San Bernardino Sun article here). Other counties have also developed tools to provide this valuable information directly to voters in a very convenient way.

In the Capitol, dozens of bills are seeking changes to move elections to all-mail ballots in some counties, lower voter registration age, and advance voter participation. This includes SB 450, the proposed overhaul of the California voting system that would set up a vote by mail system with regional voting centers. Counties could choose to opt in or continue with current voting procedures. The bill, sponsored by Secretary of State Padilla and authored by Senators Ben Allen and Bob Hertzberg, is a two-year bill that will resume with stakeholder dialogue over the interim. The authors and legislative leadership continue to work on the bill with the intention of acting upon it in early 2016. CSAC supports the measure (link to letter) with acknowledgment that more work is needed to address stakeholder needs, including concerns about cost and implementation issues.

Other changes are being sought to update current elections practices to reflect local conditions. CSAC supported AB 363 allows counties to pick up ballots to begin accounting and processing them before the end of Election Day. Especially important for geographically large counties, this change will improve election results reporting and reduce overtime costs.

Reporting on Parcel Taxes Begins This Year

Detailed information about parcel taxes will soon be widely available, thanks to the newly implemented rules requiring counties and other local agencies to report on them.

Last year’s AB 2109, by Assembly Member Tom Daly, implemented requirements for every agency that levies a parcel tax to annually report the type and rate of the tax and the number of parcels subject to or exempt from it.

The State Controller’s Office convened a working group that included representatives from counties, cities, and special districts to hash out exactly which taxes qualify as parcel taxes under the new law and how to go about collecting the required information. The reporting has been integrated into the financial transactions reporting systems already in place. The parcel tax reporting system is available for 2015-16 reporting year.

The State Controller has posted relevant information on their website, including an FAQ.

CSAC would like to extend our appreciation to Rita Woodard of Tulare County and Sally Zutter of El Dorado County for their valuable contributions as members of the Controller’s working group.