Gavin Newsom ordered a vote-by-mail 2020 election, but did not provide money to pay for it

When Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered that county election officials must send out vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters ahead of the November general election, he did not include any additional funding to carry out the plan.

The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office in a report this week said the lack of funding could become an obstacle for the election.

The office, in a report issued Thursday, said that counties “are very likely to need additional resources to conduct a predominantly vote-by-mail election in November.

“Specifically, among other costs, counties likely will experience increased costs related to printing and mailing ballots, equipment to process mail ballots, supplies and facilities to protect public health, and public outreach regarding voting changes,” according to the report.

Newsom on May 8 issued an executive order on mail-in ballots as part of his response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,500 Californians. “No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote,” Newsom said.

A majority of California voters already uses mail-in ballots. In 2016, 59 percent of the 8.5 million votes cast in California’s general election were absentee ballots. In 2018, the ration climbed to 68 percent, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Geoff Neill, of the California State Association of Counties, said that counties will be facing a higher burden this year because of the COVID-19 emergency.

“Counties are totally on board with the need to make voting as safe and accessible as possible,” he said.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office said that the county funds could be provided in the form of low-interest loans, or on a matching basis.

Neill said that low-interest loans could help in the short term but cause bigger problems in the long term unless there was criteria to make them forgivable. He said many counties still haven’t recovered from the Great Recession in 2008.

“The state is in a fiscal hole right now. Counties have almost as big a fiscal hole right now,” he said.

This story was originally published May 23, 2020 at 6:15 AM.