Bill to provide all voters with “absentee ballots” moves forward in California State Senate

SB 163, a bill to provide every California voter with a mail-in ballot for all statewide primary, special and general elections, today passed the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments on a 4-1 vote.  Voting for it were California State Senators Ben Allen, chair of the committee, Loni Hancock, Robert M. Hertzberg, and Carol Liu, all Democrats.  Voting against it was California State Senator Joel Anderson (vice chair of the committee), who is the panel’s sole Republican.

The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations committee, where it will take 2-4 weeks for the staff to do the financial analysis necessary for a understanding of how much this effort will cost.  After that, the committee will hold a hearing and vote on the bill.

The bill's author is committee member Robert M. Hertzberg, who represents the 18th Senatorial District, which encompasses about a million residents of the San Fernando Valley district of the City of Los Angeles (and a bit of Burbank, maybe including the studios there).

According to Ray Sotero, Senator Hertzberg’s Communications Director, his office has not received a single letter of opposition to this measure.

To read Senator Hertzberg's own press release on this subject, click here.