BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 172|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 172
Author: Florez (D)
Amended: 7/14/09
Vote: 21
SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COM. : 3-2, 4/21/09
AYES: Hancock, DeSaulnier, Liu
NOES: Walters, Strickland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 21-15, 5/21/09
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, DeSaulnier,
Ducheny, Florez, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal,
Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Simitian, Steinberg,
Wiggins, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Benoit, Cogdill, Cox, Denham,
Dutton, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Maldonado, Runner,
Strickland, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Oropeza, Romero, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-29, 9/1/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Voter registration
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill extends the period of time, form two
federal general elections to four presidential elections,
between the date that a voter's name is placed on the list
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of inactive voters and the date that voter's registration
is cancelled for failure to appear to vote or offer to vote
at any election.
Assembly Amendments deleted from the Senate version proof
of residency language.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Permits a county to conduct an alternative residency
confirmation procedure for any voter who has not voted
in the preceding four years. Provides that if a county
chooses to conduct this procedure, it shall send a
forwardable postcard to every voter who has not voted in
the preceding four years with a request that the voter
confirm his/her residence address.
2. Provides that a voter's name may be placed on the
inactive file for the following reasons:
A. When a residential confirmation mailing sent to
a voter is returned by the post office as
undeliverable and provides no forwarding address
for the voter, or the voter's forwarding address is
outside the county.
B. When the voter fails to confirm his/her address
as part of the alternate residency confirmation
process.
3. Provides that a voter whose name is placed in the
inactive file may have his/her registration cancelled if
he/she fails to offer to vote or vote at any election
between the date of the residential confirmation mailing
and two federal general elections.
Comments
According to the author's office, "Current law allows a
county registrar discretion to cancel a voter on the
inactive list if they have not voted in the previous (two)
federal, general elections?This bill merely changes that
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timeline to four presidential elections?During ballot count
procedures, the author's staff witnessed a number of
ballots not be counted, that were otherwise perfectly
valid, due to the fact that the voter had not voted in a
while and had been canceled by the registrar.
Background
The Voter Inactive File : Generally, when a voter is placed
on the inactive voter file, their data does not get deleted
from the county's database, but rather is flagged as
canceled. Any voter whose name has been placed on the
inactive file of registered voters and offers to vote at
any election between the date of the verification notice,
and two federal general elections after the date of notice,
or who notifies the elections official of a continued
residency, shall be removed from the inactive file and
placed on the active voter file. Allowing the voter's name
to remain on the inactive voter file for an additional
length of time should not result in any additional costs,
add to county workers existing duties, nor clog the active
voter file with deadwood since this is a completely
separate file that is already maintained by the individual
counties.
Prior/Related legislation.
AB 452 (Arambula), Chapter 317, Statutes of 2007 required
the voter notification card, which is required to be sent
to all registered or re-registered voters, to include a
notification that the card may have been sent due to a
change in party affiliation.
AB 1862 (Benoit) of 2008 would have required every county
to conduct an alternate residency confirmation process
annually for voters who have not voted in the previous four
years and specifically would have provided that if a voter
did not respond to certain residency confirmation mailings,
and the voter did not vote in the next federal election
that is at least one year after the date of the mailing,
the voter would be placed on the inactive roster of voters
within six months of the federal election. AB 1862 was set
but never heard in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting
Committee.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/2/09)
Secretary of State
OPPOSITION : (Verified 9/2/09)
Orange County Board of Supervisors
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
during the past election cycle there were over 17 million
registered voters in the state of California. There were
many voters who returned to the polls after years of not
casting a vote. Many of these returning voters were
appalled to learn that they had been removed from the voter
registration files and told their vote would not count
because they were 'cancelled' voters in the system.
Secretary of State, writes, "Current law provides that if a
voter has not voted in any election within the preceding
four years, and their voter registration information has
not been changed during that time, the county elections
official will send an Alternate Residency Confirmation
(ARC) card to the voter. To remain on the active voter
list, the voter must respond within 15 days by returning
the prepaid return postcard. If the voter does not respond
and does not attempt to vote at any election in the period
between the date of the notice (ARC card) and the second
federal general election after the notice is sent, their
voter registration will be canceled and the voter will have
to reregister in order to vote. As amended, SB 172 simply
extends the period of time for a voter to remain on the
inactive file from two to four presidential elections.
Increasing this time period will ensure voters are
enfranchised and have the ability to participate in future
elections. The cost to implement SB 172 should be
negligible, if any."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Orange County Board of
Supervisors state that extending the amount of time an
inactive voter must remain in the voter database for 16
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years is damaging to the quality of data contained in the
voter rolls. The department works to maintain an
up-to-date and accurate voter database, which is partially
achieved by purging the inactive voter rolls every two
years. Allowing a voter to remain on the inactive file for
16 years will result in a substantially larger inactive
file with a greater probability that the data contained
therein will not be accurate. By allowing a voter to
remain inactive for 16 years with little consequence, a
voter is less likely to update their information with the
office when they move, change names, change parties, or
make other critical changes to their voter registration.
Additionally, all polling places are required to have a
list of inactive voters should an inactive voter choose to
vote at their polling place on Election Day. This list
would undoubtedly be extremely large and cumbersome, and
could result in longer wait times at the polls while poll
workers struggle to search for a name amongst thousands.
Voters who are on the inactive rolls have the option of
re-activating by voting at their polling place on Election
Day. Extending the amount of time a voter may remain on
these rolls to 16 years will greatly increase the
likelihood that a voter will vote at a polling place that
does not correspond to their current address. Without
demonstrating any proof of residency or updating their
voter registration information, a voter may vote at the
polls despite having moved out of city, county or beyond.
While this may occur under the current law, limiting the
time a voter remains inactive helps to prevent this.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Caballero, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La
Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes,
Furutani, Galgiani, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jones, Krekorian, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal,
Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Skinner,
Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Yamada,
Bass
NOES: Adams, Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill,
Blakeslee, Conway, Cook, DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson,
Fletcher, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman,
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Harkey, Jeffries, Knight, Logue, Miller, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, Silva, Smyth, Audra Strickland, Tran,
Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Buchanan, Charles Calderon, Vacancy
DLW:do 9/2/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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