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 AB 2101 (FONG) Page 2 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. AB 2101 (FONG) Page 3 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 AB 2101 (FONG) Page 4 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 AB 2101 (FONG) Page 5