Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety. Today, we'll be hearing Senate Bill 259 authored by Senator Wahab. This is an official call out to Senator Wahab and her staff to please come to Room 120 7. We will need you here so we can dispense with your item and hand you off to the elections committee also meeting in this room, hopefully, at 09:30am.

I'll note that SB 259 has been referred to the committee pursuant to Assembly rule 77.2. We wait for the Senator, we'll begin with some housekeeping items. As a reminder, there are some general rules of conduct that I'd like to go over before we start the hearing today.

Please note that in order to facilitate the goal of conducting a legislative hearing and as we carry forward with witness and public comment, witness testimony and public comment, I wanna ensure that everyone understands we have rules to ensure that we maintain order and run an efficient and fair hearing. I won't permit conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of today's legislative proceedings.

Please be aware that violations of these rules may subject you to removal or other enforcement actions. Noticing that we do have a quorum. Mister secretary, would you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Alright. Noticing the presence of Mister Lackey as well. Alright, colleagues. We're just waiting on the senators, so we'll stand by. And if the senator's office can please let us know her ETA, if she needs me to present the bill on her behalf, I'm happy to do that.

I'd really like to keep us moving along on time. Thank you. Alright, everyone. We have not received a response yet from the Senator's office, so I will be presenting the bill on her behalf. I'm gonna ask doctor Sharp Collins to, preside over this hearing.

Doctor Sharp Collins, floor is yours.

Thank you. Okay. Alright. Alright. So we have a a motion already? Alright. We have a motion and a second. Alright. Good morning. We have Assembly member Schultz presenting on behalf of Senator Wahab presenting Senate bill 259. Author, you may begin well, presenting on behalf of the author, you may begin with the presentation. You have five minutes allotted to present the bill.

Thank you very much, madam Chair. Just for the record, SB 259 would make it a misdemeanor for any person having charge of a vote by mail ballot to interfere as defined with the ballot's delivery to a voter. Would also make it a felony for a person with authority to direct one or more persons subject to their supervision or authority to interfere with a ballot's return to the election local elections official or delivery to a voter. With that, we do have a witness to testify in support thereof.

Good morning, Chair and members. Beth Malnowski with SEIU California in proud support of SB 259. SEIU California is committed to safeguarding the right to vote, a right that is currently under active attack at the federal level. This growing threat highlights with California must act now to strengthen California law ahead of this year's elections.

Building on prior election safeguarding bills, SB 259 Wahab and the AB 282 Pellerin, an election protection legislative package ensures Californians have the greatest confidence in our election systems.

As noted, the bill would establish new felony misdemeanors relating to the willful interference of delivery or receipt of a VBM ballot, vote by mail ballot. Of note, the penalties under the bill do not apply to instances where an individual, volunteer, or local election official accidentally misplaces or impacts a ballot's timely receipt or delivery. Closing, we ...the legislature including new protections and safeguarded to guarantee a free and fair election. Respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who was in support of the bill? If so, please come forward, state your name, organization, and position. Am I hearing and seeing none? Is there anyone who is in opposition to the bill? Okay. Alright. And one more time. Anyone else?

Okay. There we go. Alright. Hearing and seeing none, we will go ahead and move forward to the to the committee. But we already had a first that was done by Harabedian, and the second was done by by Nguyen by Nguyen. And we will go ahead and move and turn it over to the committee for any questions. Alright. I'll turn it back over to Oh, well to close.

On behalf of Senator Wahab, respectfully ask for an aye vote today.

Alright. Thank you. I'll turn it over if we can call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Alright, colleagues. That bill is out. Thank you to doctor Sharp Collins for chairing. That concludes the business of the Assembly Public Safety.

Make Request. Alanis is on his way over.

I'm gonna leave it open till 09:30. Thank you, Mister Lackey. So that does conclude our business. The role will be left open for approximately ten minutes until 09:30am for absent members to add on. We stand adjourned. Alright, Mister secretary. I see the vice Chair has joined us. Please allow him to add on.

For SB 259 Wahab, the motion is do passed to the committee on elections. Alanis.

You know, there's still time to go to aye if you'd like. Okay. Fair enough. Vice chair's added on. For any other members of the committee, we'll keep this open till 09:30. We do have enough votes. The bill is out. So if you can't make it, we all understand. Thank you. With nothing but a minute to spare. Mister Gonzales, thank you for being in two places at once. Please allow him to add on, Mister secretary.

For SB 259, Wahab, the motion is do passed to the elections committee. Gonzales. Aye.

Alright. For the record, the, bill is out with seven votes, and it's off to the elections committee. That concludes our business.