BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 420
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 420 (Davis)
As Amended May 27, 2011
Majority vote
ELECTIONS 5-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Fong, Bonilla, Hall, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| |Gatto, Swanson | |Bradford, Charles |
| | | |Calderon, Campos, Davis, |
| | | |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Logue, Valadao |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, |
| | | |Nielsen, Smyth, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requests the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC),
when adjusting district boundaries for state Legislature,
Congress, and the Board of Equalization (BOE), to deem an
incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known place
of residence, rather than the institution of his or her
incarceration. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR), not later than December 31, 2019, to
furnish to the CRC information regarding the last known place
of residence of each inmate incarcerated in a state adult
correctional facility, except an inmate whose last known place
of residence is outside California.
2)Requires the information furnished by the CDCR to include, for
each inmate, a unique identifier, other than the inmate's name
or CDCR number, and last known address information that is
sufficiently specific to determine the congressional, State
Senatorial, State Assembly, or BOE district in which the
inmate's last known place of residence is located. Provides
that the information may include, but not be limited to, ZIP
Code information or street address information from which a
ZIP Code can be derived.
3)Requests the CRC to deem each incarcerated person as residing
at his or her last known place of residence, rather than at
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the institution of his or her incarceration, and to use the
information furnished pursuant to this bill in carrying out
its redistricting responsibilities.
4)Defines "last known place of residence," for the purposes of
this bill, as the address at which an inmate was last
domiciled prior to his or her current term of incarceration,
as determined from court records of the county in which the
inmate was sentenced.
EXISTING LAW provides that a person does not gain or lose a
domicile, for the purposes of the state's voter registration
laws, solely by reason of his or her presence or absence from a
place while kept in a prison.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, CDCR indicates that costs should not be significant.
By 2018, the Statewide Offender Management System will be fully
operational with a central database, including address
information at the point of inmate reception and pre-release.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "California law (Elections
Code Section 2025) states that incarcerated individuals remain
legal residents in their home communities, and are not legal
residents of the places where they are confined. But for the
purposes of redistricting, the State relies on data from the
Census Bureau that counts incarcerated individuals at their
prisons, and not at home (or their last known residence). The
result is a dilution of the voting strength of African-American
and Latino communities and a violation of the one person, one
vote principle."
The policy of the United States Census Bureau (Bureau) for
counting people in correctional facilities on census day is that
those individuals should be counted at the facility of
incarceration. This is true for adults and juveniles, and is
true for people who are incarcerated in federal prisons or
detention centers, state prisons, and local jails and
confinement facilities.
Because the state uses population data from the Bureau for
redistricting purposes, individuals who are incarcerated in
California traditionally have been counted at the place of
incarceration when district lines are drawn for the state
Legislature, Congress, and the BOE. Because districts at the
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local level tend to have much smaller populations than state
legislative districts, some local jurisdictions in California
choose not to include the incarcerated population when drawing
district boundaries. According to information from the Prison
Policy Initiative, 10 California counties have chosen to remove
the prison population from the census count before drawing
county supervisorial districts.
Proposition 11, which was approved by the voters at the 2008
statewide general election, created the CRC, and gave it the
responsibility for establishing district lines for the Assembly,
Senate, and BOE. Proposition 20, which was approved by the
voters at the 2010 statewide general election, gave the CRC the
responsibility for establishing lines for California's
congressional districts. Because Propositions 11 and 20
established the CRC in the Constitution, and gave it the
independent authority to draw district lines for the Assembly,
Senate, Congress, and BOE, it is unclear whether the Legislature
can require the CRC to adjust census figures for redistricting
purposes. In recognition of this fact, this bill does not
require the CRC to adjust census figures, but rather requests
that it do so.
Although the CRC currently is holding hearings for the purpose
of soliciting input before drawing new legislative,
congressional, and BOE districts to reflect the population
figures from the 2010 census, this bill would not impact that
ongoing process. That is because this bill would apply for the
2020 census and the subsequent redistricting process only-not
the current process.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0000792