BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2101 HEARING DATE:6/15/10
AUTHOR: FONG ANALYSIS BY:Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 5/20/10
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Elections: prohibiting payments
DESCRIPTION
Existing law makes certain activities relating to voter
registration a criminal offense, including the following:
Registering a person, including oneself, who is not
entitled to register to vote;
Registering a fictitious person to vote;
Registering a person to vote under a false name or
address;
Interfering with the return of a completed affidavit of
voter registration;
Refusing to return a completed affidavit of
registration;
Altering the content of an affidavit of registration
without the consent of the affiant; and,
Misusing the information from an affidavit of
registration.
Existing law prohibits various conduct with respect to the
circulation of an initiative, referendum, or recall
petition, including the following:
Misrepresentation by the circulator of a petition of
the contents, purport, or effect of the petition;
Refusal by the circulator to allow a petition signer to
read the petition;
Obscuring the summary of a measure prepared by the
Attorney General from the view of a prospective signer;
Offering or giving money or other valuable
consideration in exchange for a person's signature on a
petition;
Affixing or soliciting false or forged signatures, or
fictitious names, on a petition;
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,
Making a false affidavit concerning a petition.
This bill authorizes a court upon finding a person guilty
of the aforementioned violations, to issue an order, as a
condition of probation, that the person be prohibited from
receiving money or other valuable consideration for 1)
assisting another person to register to vote by receiving
the completed affidavit or 2) for gathering signatures on
an initiative, referendum or recall petition.
BACKGROUND
Bounty Hunters . The individuals who are paid to collect
signatures on initiative, referendum, recall petitions or
voter registrations are commonly referred to as "bounty
hunters."
To qualify an initiative to be placed on the statewide
ballot, proponents must gather hundreds of thousands of
signatures. The need to collect this large number of
signatures within a limited timeframe has given rise to an
industry of petition management firms that pay signature
gatherers a bounty based on the number of signatures they
collect.
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 too
common. In the last two election cycles, individuals
registering voters in Southern California have been
arrested and charged in schemes to change voters' partisan
affiliations without the voters' consent. Additionally, the
Orange County Register reported on complaints of a similar
scheme in Southern California earlier this year.
COMMENTS
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1.According to the author : 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.
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.
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.
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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.
AB 2946 (Leno) of 2006, among other provisions, would have
invalidated any signatures collected in violation of any
provision of state law relating to the circulation of a
statewide initiative, referendum, or recall petition,
would have required proponents of a statewide initiative,
referendum, or recall to notify the Secretary of State if
they became aware of unlawful conduct by the circulators
of their petitions, and would have made the proponents
civilly liable if they failed to do so, among other
provisions. AB 2946 was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger.
AB 980 (Pavley) of 2001 would have limited payment on a
per-piece or per-signature basis for individuals
gathering signatures, registering voters, or distributing
absentee ballot applications. AB 980 was approved by the
Assembly Elections Committee but was never brought up for
a vote on the Assembly Floor.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 6-0
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Assembly Judiciary Committee: 10-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 15-0
Assembly Floor: 74-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials (CACEO)
Oppose: None received
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