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