Elections omnibus bill.

(1) Existing law governing primary elections prohibits a declaration of candidacy for membership on a county central committee unless the candidate has been affiliated with the political party of that committee for a specified time period. These provisions do not apply to the presidential primary, but do apply to other partisan offices. However, existing law defines "partisan office" to include only the offices of President of the United States, Vice President of the United States, and the delegates therefor, and elected members of party committees. This bill would delete the provisions of law purporting to apply the candidacy restrictions to partisan offices. (2) Existing law governing referendum of county ordinances requires a county board of supervisors to suspend and reconsider an ordinance if a petition protesting the adoption of the ordinance is presented to the board before the effective date of the ordinance and is signed by a specified number of voters of the county. This bill would require the petition to be submitted to the county elections official instead of the board of supervisors. (3) Existing law permits any jurisdiction in which vote by mail ballots are cast to begin processing vote by mail ballot return envelopes 29 days before the election, and authorizes any jurisdiction having the necessary computer capability to start processing vote by mail ballots 10 business days before the election. This bill would extend that authority to start processing vote by mail ballots to 15 business days before the election. (4) This bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes to various other provisions of existing law relating to elections.