File this one under boring but important: There are no more absentee voters in California.
According to the finest Registrar of Voters in the state, Neal Kelley of Orange County, AB 1242 (Karnette) amended Section 300 of the CA Elections Code to eliminate the terms "absentee voter" and "permanent absentee voter" and prescribes that hence forth we call them :"Vote-by-Mail voters".
My guess is that consultants and pollsters will continue to use the old language but the State’s 58 Registrar’s don’t have that luxury. Neal Kelley and the other fifty-seven have until January of 2008 to clean up all the printed materials they plan to use and make sure "absentee" doesn’t appear anywhere on them.
I can’t say that I have strong feelings one way or another about this legislation and name change, although, it is costing the taxpayers money for reprinting and retooling.