BILL ANALYSIS AB 1819 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 10, 2008 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING Curren D. Price, Chair AB 1819 (Price) - As Amended: April 1, 2008 SUBJECT : Elections: voter registration. SUMMARY : Allows a person to register to vote once he or she is 16 years old if he or she otherwise meets all eligibility requirements. Specifically, this bill : 1)Permits a person who is 16 years of age and otherwise meets all eligibility requirements to vote to submit an affidavit of voter registration. Provides that a properly executed registration by a person who is less than 18 years of age shall be deemed effective as of the date the registrant will be 18 years of age, provided that the information in the affidavit of registration is still current at that time. Requires the registrant to provide current information to the elections official before the registration becomes effective if the information in the affidavit is not current. 2)Requires the local registrar of births and deaths to notify the county elections official monthly of all deceased persons 16 years of age and over whose deaths were registered with him or her or of whose deaths he or she was notified by the state registrar of vital statistics. 3)Makes corresponding changes. 4)Contains a January 1, 2010 effective date. EXISTING LAW : 1)Permits a person to register to vote if he or she will be 18 years of age on or before the date of the next election. 2)Requires the local registrar of births and deaths to notify the county elections official monthly of all deceased persons 18 years of age and over whose deaths were registered with him or her or of whose deaths he or she was notified by the state registrar of vital statistics. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program; contains AB 1819 Page 2 reimbursement direction. COMMENTS : 1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author: According to the Secretary of State (SOS), more than 7.2 million eligible voters in California are not registered to vote - nearly one-third of California's eligible voters. Among young voters, participation is even lower - according to data from the U.S. Census, more than 45 percent of eligible voters in California between 18 and 24 years of age were not registered to vote in 2004 (the most recent data available). Furthermore, while participation by younger voters has increased in the last few elections, California's ranks just 36th in the nation for turnout among young voters. Research shows that people who get involved in the political process at a young age are much more likely to become lifelong voters, so facilitating participation by younger voters can have positive long term effects on overall voter participation. The state has taken some important steps to encourage participation by younger voters - for instance, the SOS worked with Rock the Vote to create a "birthday card" program where voter registration cards are mailed to more than 30,000 Californians each month on their 18th birthday. However, we can do a better job of encouraging participation by young voters. AB 1819 seeks to improve participation among younger voters by allowing a person to "pre-register" to vote when he or she is 16 years old if that person otherwise meets all the requirements to vote. Once a "pre-registrant" turns 18, his or her voter registration automatically becomes effective. To minimize the costs of AB 1819, this bill does not go into effect until 2010, by which time the state will be using a new voter registration database that will have the capability for pre-registration built-in. AB 1819 does not change the voting age, but by allowing 16 and 17 year olds to register to vote when they go to the DMV to get their first driver's licenses, or when they are AB 1819 Page 3 taking civics and government classes in high school, it will help those individuals take the first steps towards a lifetime of participation in our democracy. 2)Pre-Registration in Other States and in California : At least eight states currently permit some form of pre-registration by individuals who have not yet reached voting age. Hawaii allows 16 year olds to pre-register to vote, while Florida allows individuals who are as young as 16 years old to register to vote if they have a driver's license (Floridians who do not have a driver's license can register to vote once they are 17). Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Texas, all permit pre-registration by 17 year olds. In fact, California already has a form of pre-registration - under California law, any person can register to vote if he or she will be 18 years old by the time of the next election. As such, in counties that do not hold local elections in odd-numbered years, it is theoretically possible that a Californian could submit a voter registration and register to vote when he or she was 16 years old. For instance, an individual who will turn 18 years old in May 2010 could theoretically register to vote after this year's general election if that individual lived in a county that does not hold elections in odd-numbered years, even though he or she would only be 16 years old at the time. This bill would allow any 16 year old to pre-register to vote without regard to whether or not there are any intervening elections between the time the person registers and the time that the person will turn 18 years old. 3)Statewide Voter Registration Database : As noted by the author above, the SOS is in the process of procuring a new statewide voter registration database. In December 2007, the SOS issued a request for proposal for development and implementation of that new system, dubbed "VoteCal." The contract for developing and implementing the VoteCal system tentatively is scheduled to be awarded in October of this year, with the VoteCal system expected to be put into operation sometime in 2009. One of the requirements of the VoteCal system is that an SOS administrator be able to set a minimum voter registration age. This requirement, coupled with the requirement that VoteCal be able to generate the official list of eligible registered AB 1819 Page 4 voters with respect to any given election based on the requirements of state election law (such as the requirement that a voter must be 18 years old by the day of the election) means that the VoteCal system should be able to automatically process "pre-registrations" as envisioned by this bill. In order to minimize the costs of implementing this bill, the author has included a provision that will delay the implementation of pre-registration until January 1, 2010, by which time the VoteCal system is scheduled to be deployed. However, if the VoteCal system gets delayed, and is not deployed by January 1, 2010, this bill could require elections officials to modify their election management systems to permit pre-registration. 4)Arguments in Support : According to the New America Foundation: High schools play a crucial role in a young person's life. California's diverse population is especially apparent in high schools today. Because students in effect are a "captive audience," high schools are an ideal place for engaging young people and incorporating them into our representative democracy. If young people are not hooked into democratic institutions and practices while they are in high school, it becomes more difficult to do so after they leave high school. And if they are not on the voter rolls then it is nearly impossible for candidates or political organizations to contact or engage them directly. Their lack of participation results in a "disengagement cycle" that becomes increasingly difficult to break. High school in many cases is the final opportunity to fully engage young people about participating in our democracy. One of the most effective ways to engage young people is to lower the age for voter registration to sixteen. Within each high school, implementation could be facilitated in various ways. Several means of registration could be employed, including registering students in their high school civics class, or as part of a student assembly or "Civics Day" in which students are visited by local political leaders. Students also could register to vote on the Internet, a practice that already is available in California. High schools might implement a "voter's ed" curriculum for high schoolers (just as many have "driver's AB 1819 Page 5 ed" now), providing a means to introduce more young people to the importance of civic engagement. California could emulate Wisconsin's law which establishes in each high school a "registration deputy" who is a teacher or staff person volunteering to oversee the voter registration process. Over time, as all 16 to 18-year-olds are preregistered to vote, California would move closer to 100 percent voter registration. The teenage population is more ethnically diverse than the overall state population, so targeting young voters is an opportunity to increase participation among under represented minority groups. Such a policy would register millions of young people in an orderly way, and generate more understanding of the value of our representative democracy. 5)Concerns Raised : While not taking a position on this bill, the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) expresses a concern that "none of the information management systems currently utilized are designed to allow for a separate file of underage or otherwise ineligible voters." CACEO notes that "there would be a level of maintenance required for these underage registrations, including updating new addresses or political party information" and that "[i]n order to maintain this data it would be necessary to upgrade the current information management systems used throughout the State." CACEO communicated this concern to the committee prior to the adoption of the most recent amendments which delayed the implementation of the bill until 2010, at which point the VoteCal statewide voter registration system is scheduled to be in use. As such, the most recent amendments to this bill may mitigate CACEO's concerns to some extent. 6)Related Legislation : AB 2371 (Coto), also being heard in this committee today, automatically registers a person to vote when he or she applies for a driver's license or state identification card or files a tax return unless that person opts-out. ACA 15 (Mullin), which is awaiting referral to committee by the Assembly Rules Committee, allows a person who is at least 17 years of age and will be at least 18 years of age at the time AB 1819 Page 6 of the next general election to register to vote and vote in that general election and in any intervening primary or special election that occurs after the person registers. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support California Common Cause FairVote Greenlining Institute New America Foundation Secretary of State Debra Bowen Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094