---
type: "Bill"
title: "Voting."
description: "Existing law permits a voter who is unable to mark a ballot to receive the assistance of not more than 2 persons, selected by the voter, at a polling place. In addition, existing law imposes criminal penalties on specified activities that interfere with another person's right to vote, including defrauding a voter who cannot read the ballot by deceiving and causing him or her to vote for a candidate that he or she did not intend to vote for."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 547"
citation: "California AB 547 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Voting."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Gatto"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 31
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2011-02-16"
last_action: "2011-09-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7a608a63-34e7-43da-822d-8d7b615d2431"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547"
source_hash: "8244b1d7e52d15c8c246a12ffeb795cdb578d9febb173355aaba437153e612ba"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 547 (20112012) — Voting.

Existing law permits a voter who is unable to mark a ballot to receive the assistance of not more than 2 persons, selected by the voter, at a polling place. In addition, existing law imposes criminal penalties on specified activities that interfere with another person's right to vote, including defrauding a voter who cannot read the ballot by deceiving and causing him or her to vote for a candidate that he or she did not intend to vote for.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/16/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54799INT)
2. **03/31/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54798AMD)
3. **04/07/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54797AMD)
4. **04/25/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54796AMD)
5. **05/05/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54795AMD)
6. **06/07/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54794AMD)
7. **06/21/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54793AMD)
8. **09/06/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54791CHP)
9. **AB547** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547)
10. **08/19/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB547&version=20110AB54792ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 547 GATTO Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **71–0** (pass) · lower
- Be referred to Committee on Elections and Redistricting. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 547 GATTO Consent Calendar Second Day — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- Special Consent #7 — **38–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Gatto — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2011-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2011-03-31** Referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-31** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-04** Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-07** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-11** Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-11** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-14** From committee: Be re-referred to Com. on E. & R. Re-referred. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 14). Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2011-04-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on E. & R. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-25** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-04** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (May 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-05** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-09** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-18** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 18). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-19** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-26** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1568.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-02** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-07** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-06-20** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 14). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-21** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-07-11** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2011-07-12** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-07-13** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2011-08-15** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 1915.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-08-15** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 17 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2011-08-18** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 71. Noes 0. Page 2443.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-08-24** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2011-09-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-09-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 260, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7a608a63-34e7-43da-822d-8d7b615d2431`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).