BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 381| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 381 Author: Calderon (D), et al Amended: 7/15/08 Vote: 21 ALL PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT SEN. ELECTIONS, REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 3-2, 8/21/08 AYES: Migden, Oropeza, Calderon NOES: Battin, Cogdill ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-18, 8/14/08 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Voter registration SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill allows for voter registration over the Internet for persons with a valid California Driver's license or state identification card. Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of the bill clarifying the law concerning behested payment reports by office holders for legislative, governmental, and charitable purposes. ANALYSIS : Existing law prohibits any person from being registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration and requires that the affidavit be mailed or delivered to the county elections official. The Secretary of State CONTINUED SB 381 Page 2 (SOS) has certain administrative duties under existing law in providing voter registration materials. The federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 provides for state Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to make voter registration information and materials available to an applicant for a driver's license and other vehicular documents. Under existing state law, the DMV requires licensed persons to provide a signature and the DMV is required to digitize that signature and forward the digitized signature to the Secretary of State if a person wishes to register to vote. This bill: 1. Allows any person who is qualified to register to vote and who has a valid California driver's license or state identification card to submit an affidavit or voter registration electronically on the Internet web site of the SOS. Requires this online voter registration system to become operative when the SOS certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database that complies with the requirements of the federal Help American Vote Act of 2002. 2. Provides that an affidavit of voter registration executed electronically through the Internet web site of the SOS is effective upon receipt of the affidavit by the SOS if the affidavit is received on or before the 15th day prior to an election to be held in the precinct of the person submitting the affidavit. 3. Requires the person who is registering to vote on the SOS's web site to provide his/her driver's license or identification card number, date of birth, the last four digits of his/her social security number, and any other information that the SOS deems necessary to establish the identity of the affiant. 4. Requires the SOS, immediately upon the submission of an affidavit of registration on the SOS's Internet Web site, to confirm with the DMV that the driver's license or state identification card number and date of birth supplied by the applicant match the information on file for that applicant with the DMV and to obtain an SB 381 Page 3 electronic copy of the applicant's signature from his/her driver's license or state identification card. 5. Requires the SOS to employ security measures to ensure the accuracy and integrity of voter registration affidavits submitted electronically through the SOS's Web site. 6. Requires the DMV to utilize the electronic voter registration system required by this bill to comply with its duties and responsibilities as a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Background According to the author's office currently, all voter registration in California ultimately utilizes a paper affidavit. Voters can partially complete a registration form online but a hard copy must still be printed out or mailed to them so that they can provide a signature. Once the signature is affixed, the paper form must then be forwarded to the appropriate county elections official or the Secretary of State. This current system is slow and costly. This bill will permit most eligible persons to register to vote over the Internet using digitized signatures on file with DMV. Accessing the DMV signatures makes it possible to complete the entire voter registration process over the internet. Californians already enjoy the convenience of conducting all kinds of e-government business, from filing tax returns to enrolling in college. The ability to register to vote or to update an existing registration online is long overdue. This bill will finally make it happen. Arizona & Washington Internet Voter Registration : Since 2002, Arizona has permitted most eligible persons to register to vote over the Internet utilizing digitized signatures on file with the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division. Only persons who have an Arizona driver's license, identification card, or driver's license permit may utilize SB 381 Page 4 the online voter registration system. Utilizing the motor vehicle signatures makes it possible to complete the entire voter registration process over the Internet, thereby making it both convenient and virtually instantaneous. In 2007, Arizona reported that 72 percent of all voter registrations were completed online. Last year, the state of Washington also approved legislation to implement on online voter registration system. The Washington legislation was modeled after the Arizona system. Washington began offering online voter registration in January of this year. Since the implementation of online voter registration, Washington has reported that between 30 and 40 percent of all voter registrations have been completed online. Existing Internet Registration Tool . The SOS's web site currently has a page that allows voters to begin the step of registering to vote online, but because of the requirement to have a signature for each registered voter, existing law and practice does not presently permit a person to complete the voter registration process online. A voter who attempts to register to vote on the SOS's web site is asked to fill in all the information necessary in order to register to vote. Once that person submits that information on the SOS's web site, a voter registration card is generated with the person's information pre-filled, and that voter registration card is mailed to the voter who must sign the card and mail it back in for the registration to be processed. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No Secretary of State . One-time information technology (IT) costs of $250,000 to implement the new registration system and ongoing costs of $70,000 for one IT position to maintain the new system. The SOS anticipates ongoing savings of about $200,000 associated with termination of its existing online system (see Comment #1). Additional savings of about $200,000, from reduced processing of paper registration forms, would be realized after the first year of implementation. SB 381 Page 5 Department of Motor Vehicles . The department would incur one-time IT costs of about $150,000 to provide interface with the SOS online registration system regarding digitized signatures. These costs will be more than offset by replacing the current manual paper registration process at the DMV, which the department indicates has annual costs of about $370,000 for personnel ($300,000) and postage ($70,000). Net Savings to Counties . Similar to the SOS and DMV, counties would incur one-time non-reimbursable reprogramming costs to provide interface with the SOS online system. However, these costs should be more than offset by savings from processing fewer paper registration forms. According to information from the author's office, Maricopa County, Arizona (which includes Phoenix) has saved the equivalent of eight staff positions since that state implemented online registration. SUPPORT : (Verified 8/14/08) American Association of Retired Persons American Legion, Department of California California Association of county Veterans Services Officers California Common Cause California National Guard Association California State Student Association City of Los Angeles Department of Defense, Federal Voting Assistance Program League of Women Voters of California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/14/08) Department of Finance ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to California Common Cause, two other states have already implemented online voter registration systems, Arizona in 2002 and Washington State in 2008. Since implementation, Arizona has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people registering to vote, as well as significant cost savings. Allowing people to register to vote online provides a simple, convenient, SB 381 Page 6 and secure registration process which in 2007, over 70 percent of people registering to vote used. In 2006 in the largest county in Arizona, cost savings were equivalent to the salaries of eight full time employees since data entry needs are reduced. Washington has also already seen a large number of potential voters registering online. With Californians already using the Internet to conduct a range of activities online, including filing tax returns and applying to college, this bill is a logical next step by adapting the voter registration process to today's technological advances. This bill will improve the voter registration process for both applicants and elections officials. Online voter registration will allow for improved access to voter registration and help to encourage more people to register to vote. It will allow for easier matching of duplicate records, and other issues that arise when a voter moves from one county to another, and remove the need for large amounts of manual data entry. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Department of Finance is opposed to this bill as it is premature and has a potential for significant General Fund impact. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Aghazarian, Arambula, Beall, Berg, Brownley, Caballero, Carter, Coto, De La Torre, De Leon, DeSaulnier, Dymally, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Garcia, Hancock, Hayashi, Hernandez, Horton, Huffman, Jones, Karnette, Krekorian, Laird, Leno, Levine, Lieber, Lieu, Ma, Mendoza, Mullin, Nakanishi, Nava, Niello, Nunez, Parra, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torrico, Tran, Wolk, Bass NOES: Anderson, Benoit, Blakeslee, DeVore, Duvall, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick, Huff, Jeffries, Keene, La Malfa, Maze, Silva, Spitzer, Strickland, Villines, Walters NO VOTE RECORDED: Berryhill, Charles Calderon, Cook, Davis, Houston, Plescia, Sharon Runner, Soto DLW:do 8/23/08 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE SB 381 Page 7 **** END ****