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HomeElections CodeDiv. 13Ch. 3Art. 2§ 13230 Split Ballot Handling

§ 13230 Split Ballot Handling

Elections Code·California
AI Summary·Official Text·Key Terms·Related Statutes·References
AI SummaryVerified

§ 13230 Split Ballot Handling

This law lets the county elections official give each voter two ballots—a regular party ballot and a separate nonpartisan ballot—when the ballot would be too big to handle.

Key Takeaways

  • •If the ballot gets too big, the county can split it into two sheets.
  • •The nonpartisan sheet can be a different color and have higher numbers.
  • •Both people who say they belong to a party and those who don’t but still vote a party’s ballot are covered.

Example

A county has 30 candidates and many local measures, making the ballot huge. The elections official decides to give every voter a regular party ballot and a separate nonpartisan ballot to keep things manageable.

Voters still get to vote for their party choices, but the part of the ballot that lists nonpartisan offices is printed on a second sheet, so the first sheet isn’t overloaded.

AI-generated — May contain errors. Not legal advice. Always verify source.

Official Source
View on CA.gov

§ 13230 Split Ballot Handling

(a) If the county elections official determines that, due to the number of candidates and measures that must be printed on the ballot, the ballot will be larger than may be conveniently handled, the county elections official may provide that a nonpartisan ballot shall be given to each partisan voter, together with his or her partisan ballot, and that the material appearing under the heading “Voter-Nominated and Nonpartisan Offices” on partisan ballots, as well as the heading itself, shall be omitted from the partisan ballots. (b) If the county elections official so provides, the procedure prescribed for the handling and canvassing of ballots shall be modified to the extent necessary to permit the use of two ballots by partisan voters. The county elections official may, in this case, order the second ballot to be printed on paper of a different tint, and assign to those ballots numbers higher than those assigned to the ballots containing partisan offices. (c) “Partisan voters,” for purposes of this section, includes both persons who have disclosed a party preference pursuant to Section 2151 or 2152 and persons who have declined to disclose a party preference, but who have chosen to vote the ballot of a political party as authorized by that party’s rules duly noticed to the Secretary of State. (Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 3, Sec. 41. (AB 1413) Effective February 10, 2012.)

Last verified: January 10, 2026

Key Terms

secretarypreferencenonpartisan officeseffective february

Related Statutes

  • § 11220 Recall Petition Filing Deadlines
  • § 10735 Catastrophic Vacancy Mail Ballots
  • § 11221 Recall Signature Requirements
  • § 11222 Petition Filing Requirements
  • § 11223 Recall Petition County Certification

References

  • Official text at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
  • California Legislature. Elections Code. Section 13230.
View Official Source