BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1436
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 18, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1436 (Feuer) - As Amended: April 16, 2012
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill allows a person to register to vote and to vote at the
office of a county elections official any time between 14 days
before election day and up to and including election day, if
certain requirements are met. Specifically, this bill:
1)Permits any person who is otherwise qualified to register to
vote, in addition to existing methods of voter registration,
to complete a conditional voter registration and cast a
provisional ballot, at any permanent office of the county
elections official, during the 14 days immediately preceding
an election or on election day.
2)Provides that a conditional voter registration is effective if
the county elections official is able to determine before or
during the canvass period for the election that the registrant
is able to register to vote and the information provided by
the registrant matches information in a database managed by
the DMV, another state agency, or the Social Security
Administration.
3)Provides that, if the information provided by the registrant
cannot be verified per (2), but the registrant is otherwise
eligible to vote and qualifies for issuance of a unique
identification number pursuant to existing law, the
conditional registration shall be deemed effective.
4)Provides that if a conditional registration is deemed
effective, the elections officials shall include the
corresponding provisional ballot in the official canvass.
5)Requires elections officials to cancel any duplicate voter
AB 1436
Page 2
registrations that may exist as a result of a conditional
registration.
6)Requires elections officials, if it appears that a registrant
may have committed fraud, to notify both the district attorney
and the Secretary of State (SOS).
7)Increases, from $10,000 to $25,000, the maximum fine that may
be imposed for a felony conviction of an election crime, for
which no other penalty is prescribed.
FISCAL EFFECT
Moderate annual General Fund reimbursable costs of $300,000 to
$600,000, assuming $5,000 to $10,000 per county to accommodate
voter registration, principally on election day, at county
elections offices. This includes the costs for staffing,
providing sufficient ballot types for a voter residing anywhere
in the county, processing the additional voter registrations,
and any additional handling associated with processing the
ballots. These costs will vary by county, and will depend on the
extent that eligible voters avail themselves to this option,
which could be limited given that same-day registration would
not be available at polling places. For high turnout elections,
costs could be much higher than those assumed above. Costs would
be offset to an unknown extent by a reduction in counties'
existing workload associated with provisional ballots.
ÝThe governor's proposed 2012-13 budget would continue the
current-year suspension of all six elections-related mandates,
including requirements for counties to allow any voter to become
a permanent vote-by-mail (VBM) voter and to tabulate VBM ballots
by precinct.]
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current law allows individuals eligible to vote to
register up to 15 days prior to an election. This bill would
additionally allow voters to register and vote up to and
including election day at county elections offices. The author
cites California decline in voter participation, and argues
that election-day registration can considerably boost voter
turnout, as demonstrated in states already allowing this
procedure.
AB 1436
Page 3
2)Other States . Ten states and the District of Columbia have
some form of election day voter registration. Idaho, Iowa,
Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Wyoming,
and Washington, DC generally permit election day voter
registration at most or all elections, while Connecticut and
Rhode Island permit election day voter registration only for
Presidential elections. Six of these states (Idaho, Iowa,
Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) and
Washington DC allow election day voter registration at the
polling place, while the other four states (Connecticut,
Maine, Montana, and Rhode Island) instead require voters to go
to another specified location (often the office of the local
elections official) to register to vote on election day.
3)Potential Impact . According to a study conducted in 2011 by
Dmos, a public policy research and advocacy organization that
often advocates for election day registration, enacting
election day registration in California could increase overall
turnout by 4.8%, with larger increases in participation by
voters aged 18 t4)o 25, voters who had moved in the last six
months, and Latinos and newly-naturalized citizens. These
projections, however, assume voters would be allowed to
register to vote on election day at the polling place. The
study notes that requiring voters "to engage in excessive
travel on election day is not likely to facilitate as many
voters utilizing Ýelection-day registration] as would a system
allowing voters to simply register and vote at their local
polling place."
5)Opposition. The California Association of Clerks and Elections
Officials (CACEO) argues that the provisions of this bill
should not be put into practice until the statewide voter
registration database (VoteCal) is fully functioning. In
addition, the CACEO expressed concern regarding the logistics
and funding required to manage a large influx of voters taking
advantage of this process on election day. The California
State Association of Counties (CSAC) opposes the bill unless
amended to either provide an appropriation to cover the bill's
costs or to make the bill's provisions optional at the
counties' discretion using county funds.
6)Prior Legislation . Similar measures, in 2011 (SB 641,
Calderon) and in 2010 (SB 1140, Yee), were held on this
committee's Suspense File. AB 1531 (Portantino) of 2010 was
held on Suspense in Senate Appropriations.
AB 1436
Page 4
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081