Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act.

Existing law provides for the nomination of electors of President and Vice President of the United States by political parties, and provides for electors who desire to be write-in candidates for presidential electors pledged to a particular candidate for President or Vice President to file a declaration of write-in candidacy. Existing law requires the electors chosen by the voters at each United States presidential election to assemble in the State Capitol in the afternoon on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their election and cast electoral ballots for the President and the Vice President of the United States who are candidates of the political party that nominated the electors, if the candidates are alive. Existing law provides that an elector who willfully neglects or refuses to perform these duties, or who knowingly and fraudulently acts in violation or contravention of them, is guilty of a crime punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both a fine and imprisonment, as specified. Existing law provides that if an elector is dead or absent on the day of voting the remaining electors present shall elect a replacement from the citizens of the state. Existing law provides for compensation for electors for their services and expenses related to travel to and from the State Capitol, as specified. This bill would enact the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act. The bill would require each political party and each group of electors pledged to a presidential and vice presidential candidate who qualifies for the ballot by a means other than political party nomination to specify alternate electors in addition to their elector nominees. The bill would require each elector and alternate elector to execute a pledge pursuant to which they promise to cast their electoral ballots for the presidential and vice presidential candidates to whom they are pledged or who are the candidates of the political party that nominated them, and would provide that those pledges are transferred to successor candidates who are nominated, as specified, if a candidate dies or withdraws as a candidate before the meeting of electors. The bill would provide that an elector who casts the elector's ballots in violation of the elector's pledge automatically vacates the elector's position, and specifies procedures for filling the vacant position with a substitute elector. The bill would require the Secretary of State to preside over the meeting of electors, examine and accept the ballots of the electors, and prepare and transmit a certificate of the vote to the President of the United States Senate and other entities, as specified. The bill would make the criminal penalties described above inapplicable to provisions regarding presidential electors. The bill would extend the compensation described above to alternate electors. The bill would make conforming changes.