Plain English Breakdown
The official text does not provide a specific effective date for the law, though it notes enactment occurred on October 3, 2025.
AB-930: Changes to Mail-in Ballot Deadlines and Recount Rules
This law extends the deadline for receiving mailed ballots in all-mail elections from three days to seven days after Election Day and updates rules about how election recounts are ordered, conducted, and paid for.
What This Bill Does
- Extends the time allowed to receive a timely mailed ballot in specified all-mailed ballot elections from three days to seven days after Election Day.
- Allows voters requesting a recount to choose the order in which batches of ballots or counties are counted.
- Prohibits unauthorized access to voting systems and adds protections for voters' personal identifying information during recounts.
- Requires that if any voter requests a manual paper-ballot recount, all recounts for that race must use physical paper ballots instead of digital images.
- Sets new rules requiring the person requesting a recount to pay for each member of the special recount board.
Who It Names or Affects
- Voters who cast ballots by mail or request an election recount
- County elections officials and local agencies that manage voting systems
- Members appointed to serve on special recount boards
Terms To Know
- Timely cast ballot
- A mailed ballot received by the election office within a specific number of days after Election Day so it counts toward the final results.
- Recount board
- A group of people appointed to review and count ballots again when an election result is very close or requested for verification.
- Batch
- A specific group of ballots that were scanned together at the same time during the original vote counting process.
Limits and Unknowns
- The law only applies if Assembly Bill 1513 is also passed and this bill becomes law after it.
- Reimbursement for local election costs depends on a future decision by the Commission on State Mandates.
- The specific effective date of these changes has not been listed in the provided text.