BILL ANALYSIS AB 2101 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 6, 2010 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING Paul Fong, Chair AB 2101 (Fong) - As Introduced: February 18, 2010 SUBJECT : Elections: prohibiting payments. SUMMARY : Permits a court to prevent someone who is convicted of initiative fraud or voter registration fraud from being paid to circulate petitions or register voters. Specifically, this bill : 1)Permits a court, upon finding a person guilty of engaging in prohibited voter registration activities, to issue an order prohibiting that person from receiving money or other valuable consideration for assisting another person to register to vote by receiving the completed affidavit of registration. Provides that such an order is in addition to any other penalty imposed by state law. 2)Permits a court, upon finding a person guilty of engaging in prohibited conduct regarding the circulation of an initiative, referendum, or recall petition, to issue an order prohibiting that person from receiving money or other valuable consideration for gathering signatures on an initiative, referendum, or recall petition. Provides that such an order is in addition to any other penalty imposed by state law. 3)Provides that a violation of an order issued by a court pursuant to this bill is a misdemeanor. EXISTING LAW : 1)Prohibits various conduct with respect to the registration of voters, including the following: a) Registering a person, including oneself, who is not entitled to register to vote; b) Registering a fictitious person to vote; c) Registering a person to vote under a false name or address; AB 2101 Page 2 d) Interfering with the return of a completed affidavit of voter registration; e) Refusing to return a completed affidavit of registration; f) Altering the content of an affidavit of registration without the consent of the affiant; and, g) Misusing the information from an affidavit of registration. 2)Prohibits various conduct with respect to the circulation of an initiative, referendum, or recall petition, including the following: a) Misrepresentation by the circulator of a petition of the contents, purport, or effect of the petition; b) Refusal by the circulator to allow a petition signer to read the petition; c) Obscuring the summary of a measure prepared by the Attorney General from the view of a prospective signer; d) Offering or giving money or other valuable consideration in exchange for a person's signature on a petition; e) Affixing or soliciting false or forged signatures, or fictitious names, on a petition; f) Using the information on a petition that has been signed by voters, including the voters' signatures, for any purpose other than the qualification of the measure for the ballot; and, g) Making a false affidavit concerning a petition. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program; contains a crimes and infractions disclaimer. COMMENTS : 1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author: AB 2101 Page 3 Stories about voters being misled into signing initiative petitions that they do not support or having their party affiliations changed without their consent are all to common. In the last two election cycles, individuals registering voters in Southern California have been arrested and charged in schemes to change voters' registrations from Democratic to Republican without the voters' consent. Additionally, numerous complaints in recent years have uncovered a common tactic of dishonest signature gatherers, who tell voters that they need to sign multiple times to have their signature counted on an initiative petition. These signature gatherers then get voters to sign other initiative petitions without disclosing to the voter what those petitions would do. Unfortunately, such problems are all too common because people who register voters or gather signatures on petitions are often paid a "bounty" for each person that they register or for each signature that they gather. As a result, signature gatherers and people registering voters have a financial incentive to mislead voters to get them to sign a petition or to re-register to vote. Previous efforts to limit the ability to pay "bounties" for collecting signatures on petitions or registering voters have failed due to concerns that such laws may make it more difficult for grassroots organizations to gather signatures on petitions and register voters. In reflection of those concerns, AB 2101 takes a narrower approach. AB 2101 cracks down on initiative fraud and voter registration fraud by allowing courts to ban individuals who are convicted of fraud from being paid to collect signatures on initiative petitions or for registering voters. Law abiding citizens who are paid to register voters and collect signatures on petitions would not be affected by this bill. Instead, this bill takes aim at those who have been convicted of fraudulent behavior, and gives judges the tools to prevent those individuals from continuing to threaten the integrity of California's elections. AB 2101 Page 4 2)Similar Laws in Other States : The provisions of this bill are similar to laws enacted in Arizona and Oregon in 2009 which prohibit petition circulators who are convicted of fraud from being compensated for collecting signatures on initiative, referendum, or recall petitions. In 2009, Oregon's Legislature approved and the Governor signed HB 2005, which among other provisions prohibits a person from being eligible to register as a petition circulator if that person has had criminal or civil penalties imposed against him or her for a violation of the state's laws governing the circulation of petitions. In Arizona, the Legislature approved and the Governor approved SB 1091, which among other provisions prohibits a person convicted of engaging in a pattern of petition fraud from participating in any initiative, referendum, or recall campaign for five years. 3)Previous Legislation : SB 34 (Corbett) of 2009 would have made it a misdemeanor for a person to pay or to receive money or any other thing of value based on the number of signatures collected on a state or local initiative, referendum, or recall petition. SB 34 was vetoed by the Governor, who expressed concern that it could "make it more difficult for grassroots organizations to gather the necessary signatures and qualify measures for the ballot." SB 1686 (Denham) of 2008 would have made it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000, by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both the fine and imprisonment, for a person, company, organization, company official, or other organizational officer in charge of a person who circulates an initiative, referendum, or recall petition to knowingly direct or permit the person to make a false affidavit concerning the initiative, referendum, or recall petition. SB 1686 was vetoed by the Governor, though he did not express any policy objections to the bill. 4)Double-Referral : This bill has been double-referred to the Assembly Committee on Judiciary. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support California Association of Clerks and Election Officials AB 2101 Page 5 Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094