Elections and voting procedures.

Assembly Member Ward's elections reform legislation extends California's mail ballot deadline to seven days after election day while overhauling the state's recount procedures. Under the new provisions, mail ballots received within a week of election day would be counted if postmarked by election day or if the envelope is signed and dated appropriately when lacking a clear postmark.

The bill modifies recount protocols by allowing requesters to specify the order of ballot review by batch or county. For manual recounts where voting systems can display ballot images, requesters must choose between examining paper ballots or official digital images. If multiple parties request recounts of the same contest and at least one requests paper ballot review, officials must conduct a single controlling manual recount of paper ballots.

Additional provisions enhance ballot security by prohibiting unauthorized access to voting systems and restricting ballot handling to election officials and recount board members. The legislation requires counties to post recount results within one day of completion and maintain public access to those results for 30 days. Local election offices would receive state reimbursement for costs associated with implementing these new requirements.