Elections and voting procedures.

Ward’s proposal would convert two pillars of California’s election administration by extending the timely receipt window for mail ballots to seven days after Election Day while also overhauling recount procedures to emphasize sequencing, security, and transparency.

On the mail-ballot front, the measure retains a guaranteed framework for determining timeliness but broadens the receipt period to seven days for ballots sent by mail, with postmark or time-stamp safeguards and a fallback process for undated envelopes that must be date-stamped upon receipt. It also defines a “bona fide private mail delivery company” and preserves a separate receipt standard for ballots delivered by private carriers that are postmarked on or before Election Day or shown to have been mailed on or before Election Day.

The recount provisions introduce a structured workflow: voters or campaigns may request a recount within a defined window after canvass completion, and the requester may specify the order in which votes are recounted by precinct or by the batch in which ballots were scanned, with additional authority to set the sequence for multi-county recounts. Counties would deposit funds to cover daily recount costs, and four special recount board members would supervise the process, with reimbursement obligations placed on the requester. The bill tightens timing (begin within seven business days and run at least six hours per day) and imposes heightened notice requirements to candidates, authorized representatives, proponents, and the Secretary of State. It also restricts handling of ballots and access to voting systems to authorized personnel, adds explicit procedures for challenging ballots, and clarifies that precinct-level recount results become the official returns, with stringent conditions on when a statewide or jurisdiction-wide recount is considered complete. A post-recount reporting requirement would mandate posting the results publicly within not more than one day after completion for a 30-day period, with formal notifications to the same list of parties.

The measure situates these changes within a broader governance framework that includes a conditional operative clause tied to another reform proposal, potential state-mandated-local-cost reimbursement, and standard provisions governing implementation and oversight. It contemplates interplay with multi-bill sequencing, creates a state-mandated-local-program dynamic, and emphasizes security and privacy safeguards around ballots, recount materials, and data, all while expanding notice and transparency obligations. These elements collectively reflect an approach to bolster procedural clarity in recounts and broaden ballot-access windows, while preserving core protections for voter information and the integrity of the counting process.