AB 394

Current law permits an election official to create a duplicate of an elector's

ballot when one of two circumstances occur: 1) the elector's original ballot is damaged

or defective such that the ballot cannot be properly counted by automatic tabulating

equipment; or 2) the elector has overvoted for an office by writing in votes for more

candidates than the number of votes authorized to be cast. In the first circumstance,

the election official duplicates the elector's ballot in its entirety. In the second

circumstance, the election official duplicates the elector's original ballot but does not

complete that portion of the ballot for the office for which the elector overvoted.

Current law requires the election official to retain and write "Damaged Ballot" or

"Overvoted Ballot" on the elector's original ballot. Current law also requires the

election official to write "Duplicate Damaged Ballot" or "Duplicate Overvoted Ballot"

on the duplicate ballot.

This bill requires the election officials to identify and number these ballots and

duplicate ballots in that portion of the ballot for official endorsement. The bill

requires the Government Accountability Board to include on each official ballot form,

in the space for official endorsement, markings or spaces for identifying these ballots

and for writing an identifying serial number.