republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-2686.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elections: all-mailed ballot elections."
description: "Existing law generally does not allow special elections to fill vacancies in state offices, the Legislature, or Congress to be conducted wholly by mail. Existing law authorizes, until January 1, 2021, San Diego County to conduct, as a pilot program, an all-mailed ballot special election or special consolidated election (1) to fill a congressional or legislative vacancy if the congressional or legislative district lies wholly within San Diego County, (2) to fill a vacancy in the legislative body or governing body, and (3) for certain local initiative and referendum measures."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 2686"
citation: "California AB 2686 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Elections: all-mailed ballot elections."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mullin"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 22
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2016-02-19"
last_action: "2016-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9b6e89e1-aba2-42c2-9824-7735e37a18f1"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686"
source_hash: "4732a5caf822722140a4ca0cf75654bee9b9c776fa8426f067aba3f41b4fa703"
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 2686 (20152016) — Elections: all-mailed ballot elections.

Existing law generally does not allow special elections to fill vacancies in state offices, the Legislature, or Congress to be conducted wholly by mail. Existing law authorizes, until January 1, 2021, San Diego County to conduct, as a pilot program, an all-mailed ballot special election or special consolidated election (1) to fill a congressional or legislative vacancy if the congressional or legislative district lies wholly within San Diego County, (2) to fill a vacancy in the legislative body or governing body, and (3) for certain local initiative and referendum measures.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/19/16 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268699INT)
2. **04/20/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268698AMD)
3. **05/03/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268697AMD)
4. **06/14/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268696AMD)
5. **06/16/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268695AMD)
6. **09/28/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268693CHP)
7. **AB2686** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686)
8. **08/29/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2686&version=20150AB268694ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **4–1** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB2686 Mullin By Hertzberg — **27–11** (pass) · upper
- AB 2686 MULLIN Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **61–16** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **5–2** (pass) · lower
- AB 2686 MULLIN Assembly Third Reading — **57–20** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Mullin — primary (person)
- Gonzalez — author (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-02-19** Introduced. To print. `introduction`
- **2016-02-21** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2016-02-22** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2016-03-10** Referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-20** 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, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-04-21** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2016-05-02** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (April 27). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-05-03** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-05-04** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-05-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 57. Noes 20. Page 4892.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-05-23** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2016-06-09** Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2016-06-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-22** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (June 21). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-06-23** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 27. Noes 11. Page 5241.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-23** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 25 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-25** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 61. Noes 16. Page 6296.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-09-02** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12 p.m.
- **2016-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 764, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9b6e89e1-aba2-42c2-9824-7735e37a18f1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).