republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-860.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elections: vote by mail ballots."
description: "Under existing law, a registered voter may vote by mail by requesting a vote by mail ballot for a specific election or by becoming a permanent vote by mail voter. County elections officials must begin mailing ballots and other required materials to these voters no later than 29 days before the day of the election. Existing law, the California Voter's Choice Act, authorizes any county to conduct any election occurring on or after January 1, 2020, as an all-mailed ballot election if specified conditions are met. In an all-mailed ballot election held under the act, the county elections official must mail a ballot to every registered voter, regardless of whether the voter requested a vote by mail ballot or is a permanent vote by mail voter."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 860"
citation: "California AB 860 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Elections: vote by mail ballots."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Berman"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2019-02-20"
last_action: "2020-06-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3e35a3ff-7493-4fc2-bf26-6506fe263b94"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860"
source_hash: "2243a182446df014c36c09dd5640f0fdcf8024a4a20f1e053e634e78f9d90caa"
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 860 (20192020) — Elections: vote by mail ballots.

Under existing law, a registered voter may vote by mail by requesting a vote by mail ballot for a specific election or by becoming a permanent vote by mail voter. County elections officials must begin mailing ballots and other required materials to these voters no later than 29 days before the day of the election. Existing law, the California Voter's Choice Act, authorizes any county to conduct any election occurring on or after January 1, 2020, as an all-mailed ballot election if specified conditions are met. In an all-mailed ballot election held under the act, the county elections official must mail a ballot to every registered voter, regardless of whether the voter requested a vote by mail ballot or is a permanent vote by mail voter.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/20/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86099INT)
2. **04/24/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86098AMD)
3. **05/28/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86097AMD)
4. **06/04/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86096AMD)
5. **06/18/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86094CHP)
6. **AB860** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860)
7. **06/18/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB860&version=20190AB86095ENR)

## Votes

- Placed on suspense file — **2–5** (fail) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- With recommendation: That Senate amendments be concurred in. — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 860 Berman Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB860 Berman et al. By Umberg Urgency Clause — **31–7** (pass) · upper
- AB 860 Berman Concurrence - Urgency Added — **68–5** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **4–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **20–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Berman — primary (person)
- Bauer-Kahan — coauthor (person)
- Boerner Horvath — coauthor (person)
- Bonta — coauthor (person)
- Carrillo — coauthor (person)
- Cervantes — author (person)
- Chiu — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Friedman — coauthor (person)
- Gonzalez — author (person)
- Hertzberg — principal coauthor (person)
- Levine — coauthor (person)
- Muratsuchi — coauthor (person)
- Reyes — coauthor (person)
- Robert Rivas — coauthor (person)
- Santiago — coauthor (person)
- Smith — coauthor (person)
- Stern — coauthor (person)
- Umberg — author (person)
- Wicks — coauthor (person)
- Wiener — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-20** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-21** From printer. May be heard in committee March 23.
- **2019-03-04** Referred to Com. on G.O. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-04** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 20. Noes 0.) (April 3). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-04-25** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1476.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-16** Referred to Com. on G.O. `referral-committee`
- **2020-04-24** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on G.O. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-11** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2020-05-11** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-28** Re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-28** 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. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-02** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (June 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-04** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-09** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (June 9). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-10** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-11** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 7. Page 3679.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-11** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2020-06-11** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-16** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 16). `committee-passage`
- **2020-06-18** Urgency clause adopted. Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 68. Noes 5. Page 4915.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-06-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1 p.m.
- **2020-06-18** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-06-18** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 4, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3e35a3ff-7493-4fc2-bf26-6506fe263b94`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).