---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elections: official canvass: manual tally."
description: "Existing law requires, during the official canvass of an election in which a voting system is used, the elections official conducting the election to conduct a public manual tally of the ballots tabulated by those devices, including vote by mail voters' ballots, cast in 1% of the precincts chosen at random by the elections official."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 985"
citation: "California AB 985 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Elections: official canvass: manual tally."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Williams"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 16
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2011-02-18"
last_action: "2011-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/df2dcbd5-576e-4dff-88f6-7011c0c2c78e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB985"
source_hash: "956feba07668957e092ffd50e74a12c5f27cd85589b4c45ecacaf96779ee28f5"
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 985 (20112012) — Elections: official canvass: manual tally.

Existing law requires, during the official canvass of an election in which a voting system is used, the elections official conducting the election to conduct a public manual tally of the ballots tabulated by those devices, including vote by mail voters' ballots, cast in 1% of the precincts chosen at random by the elections official.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB985&version=20110AB98599INT)
2. **07/01/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB985&version=20110AB98597CHP)
3. **AB985** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB985)
4. **06/15/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB985&version=20110AB98598ENR)

## Votes

- AB 985 WILLIAMS Consent Calendar Second Day — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar. — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar 2nd — **36–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Williams — primary (person)
- Blakeslee — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2011-03-10** Referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-13** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 12). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-04-14** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 1176.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-05-12** Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-06** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2011-06-08** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 8). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-09** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-06-11** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 1383.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-13** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2011-06-21** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:40 a.m.
- **2011-06-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-07-01** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 52, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/df2dcbd5-576e-4dff-88f6-7011c0c2c78e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).