republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-759.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elections: county officers."
description: "The California Constitution requires the Legislature to provide for an elected county sheriff, elected district attorney, and elected assessor in each county. Existing law also provides that the county treasurer, clerk, auditor, tax collector, recorder, public administrator, and coroner are elective offices unless a county makes them appointive offices, as specified. Existing law generally requires the election to select county officers to be held with the statewide primary election at which candidates for Governor are nominated, but if no candidate for a county office receives a majority of the votes cast for that office at the primary election, the 2 candidates who received the most votes advance to the statewide general election at which the Governor is elected."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 759"
citation: "California AB 759 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Elections: county officers."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["McCarty"]
version_count: 11
action_count: 41
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2022-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c1ab879e-72d6-4af2-a044-e4d3be85609f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759"
source_hash: "dd7ceb3cc812fd2d0631e7581c66b15f0112d08d1f7bf7ea2bf5c6c38e9a83e5"
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 759 (20212022) — Elections: county officers.

The California Constitution requires the Legislature to provide for an elected county sheriff, elected district attorney, and elected assessor in each county. Existing law also provides that the county treasurer, clerk, auditor, tax collector, recorder, public administrator, and coroner are elective offices unless a county makes them appointive offices, as specified. Existing law generally requires the election to select county officers to be held with the statewide primary election at which candidates for Governor are nominated, but if no candidate for a county office receives a majority of the votes cast for that office at the primary election, the 2 candidates who received the most votes advance to the statewide general election at which the Governor is elected.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75999INT)
2. **03/17/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75998AMD)
3. **04/21/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75997AMD)
4. **06/22/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75996AMD)
5. **07/01/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75995AMD)
6. **08/16/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75994AMD)
7. **08/24/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75992AMD)
8. **09/03/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75993AMD)
9. **09/29/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75990CHP)
10. **AB759** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759)
11. **09/02/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB759&version=20210AB75991ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **4–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 759 McCarty Assembly Third Reading — **51–20** (pass) · lower
- AB 759 McCarty Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **48–21** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Governance and Finance] — **3–2** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB759 McCarty et al. By Newman — **21–11** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **12–4** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- McCarty — primary (person)
- Newman — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Com. on ELECTIONS. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-17** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ELECTIONS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-18** Re-referred to Com. on ELECTIONS. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ELECTIONS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-22** Re-referred to Com. on ELECTIONS. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 1.) (April 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-20** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 1460.)
- **2021-05-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 4.) (May 20). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-24** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 51. Noes 20. Page 1856.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-03** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-16** Referred to Coms. on E. & C.A. and GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-22** 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. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-28** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on GOV. & F. (Ayes 3. Noes 2. Page 1692.) (June 28). Re-referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-01** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-08** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (July 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-23** In committee: Referred to APPR suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-03** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-07** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-07** Re-referred to Com. on RLS pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10 (b). `referral-committee`
- **2021-09-07** From committee: Be re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) Re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-09-08** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2021-09-08** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2021-09-08** Ordered to second reading.
- **2021-09-08** Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator Newman.
- **2022-08-24** From inactive file.
- **2022-08-24** Ordered to second reading.
- **2022-08-24** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-25** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 21. Noes 11. Page 5241.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-30** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2022-08-31** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 48. Noes 21.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2022-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2022-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 743, Statutes of 2022. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c1ab879e-72d6-4af2-a044-e4d3be85609f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).