SACRAMENTO — Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), Chair of the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting, has announced he will introduce legislation to require that all active registered California voters be mailed a ballot for all future elections following the successful implementation of such a policy for the 2020 General Election.
"Our democracy is strongest when everyone participates,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman. “This year we saw historic levels of voter participation following the passage of AB 860, which required every county to send vote-by-mail ballots to all active registered voters. More than 68% of eligible Californians voted in the General Election, which was the highest turnout since at least 1960. Now that we know these changes were successful, I will introduce a bill in the new session to make permanent the key provisions of AB 860."
In April, Assemblymember Berman amended his AB 860 to require that every active registered California voter receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the 2020 General Election. AB 860 also facilitated the surge in voting by mail by ensuring that all California voters had the ability to track their ballots as they moved through the mail system and were processed by elections officials (a system that was initially created by Berman’s AB 2218 in 2018). AB 860 was signed into law as an urgency measure in June, and was a key part of the state’s preparations for conducting a safe and successful Presidential General Election during the COVID-19 pandemic. In all, approximately 15 million Californians voted in the General Election using a ballot that was mailed to them, and more than 4.5 million Californians signed up to track their vote-by-mail ballots.
Contact: Kaitlin Curry (916) 319-2024