SB 335 permits any California county to conduct an election as an all‑mailed ballot election notwithstanding existing code, provided the county adopts and implements a detailed plan meeting numerical minimums for ballot drop‑off locations and vote centers, accessibility and language requirements, public engagement, and voter education. The plan must be publicly noticed, include a Secretary of State–approved voter education and outreach component, and the county must perform specific operational tasks such as mailing ballots on a defined schedule, running a toll‑free hotline, and maintaining an electronic index of voters who use vote centers.
This matters because the bill converts many elements of convenience voting into enforceable operational standards — explicit ratios of drop boxes and vote centers, multi‑day vote center hours, advisory committees, and required post‑election reporting. Counties gain a clear path to move fully to mailed ballots, but the measure also creates predictable administrative, staffing, and cost obligations and a data collection regime that will change how counties plan and justify election operations.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill authorizes counties to run all‑mailed ballot elections if they adopt a public plan that meets set thresholds: at least one drop‑off location per 15,000 registered voters (or a minimum of two), vote centers at ratios ranging from one per 10,000 on election days to one per 50,000 in an early voting window, multilingual and disability access, and Secretary of State oversight of voter education plans.
Who It Affects
County elections officials are primarily responsible for compliance; affected parties include voters (especially those with disabilities and language minorities), county budgets and staffing, the mail and ballot‑handling infrastructure, community organizations involved in outreach, and the Secretary of State for plan approval and data reporting.
Why It Matters
SB 335 turns operational choices into statutory requirements and specifies granular thresholds and timelines that change planning, cost calculations, and accountability for county elections offices. For administrators and compliance officers, the bill creates new procedural duties, mandatory public engagement steps, and reporting obligations that will drive resource allocation and performance metrics.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill creates an opt‑in path for counties to make an election an "all‑mailed ballot" election. To do so a county must adopt a publicly noticed plan and satisfy minimum infrastructure and service standards.
Those standards require a combination of exterior and interior ballot drop boxes, multi‑day staffed vote centers with accessible equipment, and specific geographic and numeric spacing rules so that the community has both mailed ballots and in‑person options for registration, provisional and replacement ballots, and accessible voting.
Operational details are prescriptive. Ballot drop‑off locations must be secure, accessible, and open beginning at least 28 days before the election and on election day; at least one exterior drop box must be available at least 12 hours per day.
Vote centers must provide core services—returning or voting a vote‑by‑mail ballot, same‑day registration, provisional and replacement ballots—and must include accessible voting equipment that enables private, independent voting. The bill sets minimum machine counts and exact ratios of vote centers per registered voters for several time windows: the four‑day early voting window immediately preceding election day, the three‑day pre‑election window, and an earlier 10‑day window with a reduced center density.The law compels inclusive outreach and engagement: county officials must convene advisory committees for language minority communities and voters with disabilities, solicit public input, hold public hearings, and post draft and final plans in required languages and accessible formats.
Counties must also run a voter education and outreach plan approved by the Secretary of State that includes media buys, bilingual workshops, at least two direct voter contacts (with options to reduce after six statewide elections under strict reinvestment rules), and a toll‑free, multilingual voter assistance hotline operational from the start of ballot mailings through the day after the election.Post‑election accountability is also formalized. The Secretary of State must prepare a demographic breakdown report within six months after each election conducted under the statute with data on turnout, registration, ballot rejection and reasons, provisional and accessible ballot use, counts by vote center and drop‑box returns, and reported instances of voter fraud.
Counties must also post a nine‑month cost comparison of the all‑mailed election against prior, comparable elections. Finally, the statute includes a sunset date — it expires at the end of 2029 — and the Secretary of State is charged with enforcement under existing Government Code authority.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Ballot mailing schedule: counties must begin mailing vote‑by‑mail packets no later than 29 days before the election and have five days to mail ballots to the population registered on that 29th day (with five days for each subsequent registrant).
Drop‑box minimum: the county must provide at least two ballot drop‑off locations or at least one box per 15,000 registered voters (whichever yields more boxes), and boxes must be open at least during regular business hours starting 28 days before the election.
Vote‑center density and hours: on election day and each of the three preceding days the bill requires at least one vote center per 10,000 registered voters (7 a.m.–8 p.m. on election day; minimum eight‑hour days on the three prior days), with at least 90% of required centers open for all four days.
Accessibility and staffing: each vote center must have at least three accessible voting machines and provide language assistance and translated materials as required under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act; counties must create language and disability advisory committees before public hearings on plans.
Reporting, hotline, and sunset: the Secretary of State must publish a detailed demographic and operational report within six months of such an election, counties must maintain a multilingual toll‑free hotline operational no later than 29 days before the election through the day after, and the whole statute sunsets December 31, 2029.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Minimum ballot drop‑off locations and standards
This section fixes the numerical standard for drop‑off infrastructure: at least two secure, accessible boxes or a ratio of one per 15,000 registered voters (whichever produces more boxes). It requires exterior secured boxes available at least 12 hours per day and mandates placement as near as possible to public transit. The practical implication is that counties cannot simply rely on a single central drop box — they must geographically distribute boxes and ensure continuous availability beginning four weeks before the election.
Vote‑center functions, machine and hour requirements
These paragraphs specify what vote centers must do (accept and issue ballots, handle provisional and replacement ballots, enable same‑day registration, and provide private accessible voting). They also set hard numerical requirements: at least three accessible voting machines per vote center and precise ratios of centers to registered voters across several time windows (1:10,000 on the four‑day core window; 1:50,000 in the earlier 10‑day window). Administrators must both meet accessibility laws and consciously distribute centers to serve low‑usage, low‑income, transit‑dependent, and language minority communities.
Ballot mailing, notices, public plan and outreach requirements
This cluster governs how counties notify and educate voters: mailings must begin no later than 29 days before election day, include multilingual notices about in‑person options and how to request accessible or non‑English ballots, and enclose a list of vote centers and drop‑boxes. Counties must draft, publicly post, and hold pre‑adoption hearings on detailed administration plans that include a Secretary of State–approved voter education and outreach component describing media use, bilingual workshops, direct voter contacts, community presence, budgets, and contingency plans.
Advisory committees and public engagement process
The bill requires establishment of language accessibility and voting accessibility advisory committees (and a voter education committee in larger counties) before the public meeting on the draft plan, ensuring stakeholder input precedes plan notice. It also mandates at least one public meeting per stakeholder group, 14‑day public comment windows on draft and amended plans, and four‑year review cycles. The mechanism institutionalizes community review and forces counties to document how location and service decisions address equity and access.
Post‑election reporting and cost comparisons
The Secretary of State must compile and publish a demographic and operational report within six months that disaggregates turnout, registration, rejection rates, reasons for rejection, provisional and accessible ballot use, vote‑center pickup counts, drop‑box returns, mail returns, and reported instances of fraud. Counties must separately post a cost comparison within nine months. These obligations create data for oversight and future policy evaluation but will require standardized data collection from counties to be meaningful.
Sunset and enforcement
SB 335 includes a hard sunset: the statute automatically repeals on December 31, 2029. Enforcement is delegated to the Secretary of State under existing Government Code authority rather than by creating new civil penalties. The limited duration and reliance on existing enforcement tools are practical touches that shape county willingness to invest in longer‑term changes.
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Explore Elections in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Voters with disabilities — the bill mandates accessible vote‑by‑mail options, accessible voting machines at vote centers, private and independent ballot marking devices, and an accessible hotline and materials, improving practical access for voters who need accommodations.
- Language minority communities — required translation of materials, language‑specific staffing at some centers, bilingual workshops, and multilingual PSAs aim to reduce language barriers and make participation more feasible.
- Transit‑dependent and low‑vehicle households — the placement rules for drop boxes and vote centers (near public transportation and distributed to serve low‑income and vehicle‑poor areas) increase physical access where turnout has historically lagged.
- Voter outreach and rights organizations — the statutory requirement for public planning, advisory committees, and detailed post‑election reporting provides advocates with formal venues and data to press for equitable implementation and to measure outcomes.
Who Bears the Cost
- County elections offices — they must staff more vote centers for multi‑day windows, install and secure additional drop boxes, run multilingual outreach, convene advisory committees, maintain the required electronic index, and prepare detailed post‑election reports, all of which increase operational complexity and workload.
- County budgets and taxpayers — expanded mailings, staffing, equipment purchases (including multiple accessible voting machines per center), and communications campaigns will raise short‑term costs and require budget realignment or new funding.
- Postal and ballot‑handling operations — the compressed mailing windows and high‑volume outbound and inbound ballot flows increase load on local postal operations and county ballot processing facilities.
- Small counties and understaffed jurisdictions — counties with limited permanent election staff may face outsized burdens to recruit bilingual and accessible‑trained poll workers, secure facilities, and complete the public‑planning and reporting mandates on tight schedules.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between maximizing voter access (universal mailed ballots plus many localized, accessible in‑person options and robust outreach) and the practical limits of local administration: precise service standards improve equity but impose material costs, staffing and security obligations, and data‑management burdens that counties — especially smaller ones — may not be able to meet without additional funding or operational support.
SB 335 advances access by combining universal mailed ballots with a mandated in‑person safety net of vote centers and drop boxes, but that design raises implementation trade‑offs. The statutory ratios and hours create predictable service levels, yet they assume counties can quickly scale staff, machines, and secure drop‑box infrastructure; smaller or resource‑constrained counties may struggle to comply without supplemental funding or will be forced to reallocate staff from other election tasks.
The bill requires an electronic index of voters who use vote centers (updated continuously while centers are open), which aids operations and post‑election analysis but also creates privacy and cybersecurity questions about how that file is stored, published, and protected.
Security and chain‑of‑custody are addressed in general terms (secure boxes, contingency plans, non‑connection of the registration access tool to voting systems), but the bill does not prescribe uniform procedures for collection, transport, or centralized processing of ballots, leaving counties discretion that can produce uneven practices. The reporting requirements will generate useful data, but their value depends on standardized definitions and county capacity to collect demographic and operational metrics; absent consistent methodologies, cross‑county comparisons could be misleading.
Finally, the sunset date limits long‑term planning: counties may be reluctant to invest in durable infrastructure if the law expires in 2029, yet short sunsets can also enable a pilot‑style evaluation before wider adoption.
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