BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1436 HEARING DATE: 6/19/12
AUTHOR: FEUER ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: As proposed to be amended
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voter registration
DESCRIPTION
Existing law allows individuals who are eligible to vote to
execute an affidavit of voter registration up to 15 days
prior to an election.
Existing law specifies that in order to be eligible to
vote, an individual must be a United States citizen, a
resident of California, not in prison or on parole for the
conviction of a felony, not deemed mentally incompetent,
and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next
election.
Existing law provides that a voter claiming to be properly
registered but whose qualification or entitlement to vote
cannot be immediately established upon review of the index
of registration for the precinct or upon examination of the
records on file with the county elections official, shall
be entitled to vote a provisional ballot.
Existing law provides that if an applicant for voter
registration has not been issued a current and valid
driver's license or a social security number, the state
shall assign the applicant a number that will serve to
identify the applicant for voter registration purposes.
This bill would allow an eligible person to register to
vote and vote at the office of the county elections
official at any time, including on election day, if certain
requirements are met. Specifically, this bill :
1. Defines "conditional voter registration" as a properly
executed affidavit of registration which is delivered by
the registrant to the county elections official during
the 14 days immediately preceding an election or on
election day and which may be deemed effective after the
elections official processes the affidavit, determines
the registrant's eligibility to register, and validates
the registrant's information.
2. Permits an elector 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 during the 14
days immediately preceding an election or on election
day.
3. Provides that a conditional voter registration shall be
deemed effective if the county elections official is
able to determine before or during the canvass period
for the election that the registrant is eligible to
register to vote and that the information provided by
the registrant on the registration affidavit matches
information contained in a database maintained by the
California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), or the
federal Social Security Administration.
4. Provides that if the information provided by the
registrant on the registration affidavit cannot be
verified by the databases described above, but the
registrant is otherwise eligible to vote, the registrant
shall be issued a unique identification number in
accordance with existing law, and the conditional voter
registration shall be deemed effective.
5. Provides that conditional voter registration and
provisional voting shall be available at all permanent
offices of the county elections official.
6. Requires an elections official to notify registrants
that a conditional voter registration will be effective
only if the registrant is determined to be eligible to
register to vote for the election and the information is
verified as specified by this bill.
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7. Requires an elections official to conduct the receipt
and handling of each conditional voter registration and
offer and receive a corresponding provisional ballot in
a manner that protects the secrecy of the ballot and
allows the elections official to process the
registration, determine the registrant's eligibility to
register, and validate the registrant's information
before counting or rejecting the corresponding
provisional ballot.
8. Requires an elections official, after receiving a
conditional voter registration, to process the
registration, determine the registrant's eligibility to
register and attempt to validate the information.
9. Requires an elections official, if a conditional
registration is deemed effective, to include the
corresponding provisional ballot in the official
canvass.
10.Provides that the county elections official may offer
conditional voter registration and provisional voting on
election day at satellite offices of the county
elections office in accordance with procedures set forth
in existing law.
11.Requires an elections official, if it appears that a
registrant may have committed fraud, to notify in
writing both the district attorney and the SOS.
12.Increases the fine that may be imposed for a felony
conviction of an election crime, for which no other
penalty is prescribed by law, from $10,000 to $25,000.
13.Requires the provisions of this bill to become
operative on January 1 of the year following the date
when the Secretary of State certifies that the state has
a statewide voter registration database in compliance
with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote
Act of 2002.
BACKGROUND
Election Day Voter Registration in Other States : In all, 10
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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 for
Presidential elections only. 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) do not provide election
day registration at all polling places, and may require
voters to go to another specified location (often the
office of the local elections official) to register to vote
on election day.
In June of last year, Maine's Governor signed a bill to
eliminate election day voter registration in that state.
Groups that opposed the bill successfully collected enough
signatures to place a referendum on last November's
election ballot to overturn the law. The referendum
ultimately was successful, and election day registration
was restored in Maine.
North Carolina permits "one-stop voting," whereby a person
can register to vote and immediately cast a ballot at
certain designated locations after the regular voter
registration deadline. However, North Carolina technically
does not have election day registration, because "one-stop
voting" ends three days before the election.
North Dakota has no voter registration requirement at all.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Citizen participation in
elections is the bedrock of our representative
democracy. Yet, in California, voter participation has
fallen to troubling levels. In the November 2010
general election just 44.1% of eligible voters cast a
vote. Fortunately there is more that we can do to
promote increased participation, thus ensuring that
election results reflect the will of the people to the
greatest extent possible. Currently, individuals who
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are eligible to vote must submit a voter affidavit at
least 15 days prior to an election. Unfortunately, the
registration deadline hinders voter participation.
This is illustrated by the ten states that allow some
form of same-day registration and voting. All but one
has higher voter participation rates than
California-where only 44.1% of eligible voters
participated in the 2010 general election. In
comparison, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota had
respective rates of 50.0%, 52.1%, and 55.4% in the 2010
general election. Research also shows that same-day
registration and voting lead to increased
participation. North Carolina implemented same-day
voter registration in 2007 and saw an 8% increase in
voter turnout during the 2008 presidential election
compared to the 2004 presidential election.
AB 1436 addresses California's low voter participation
rate through the creation of a conditional voter
registration process, which would provide same-day
registration and voting. Beginning 14 days prior to an
election and including Election Day, a county elections
office headquarters would offer conditional voter
registration. This should lead to greater voter
participation rates, which will provide election
results that more fully reflect the will of the people.
Aside from benefitting first-time voters, this bill
will also benefit those who have outdated registration.
California counties vary greatly in geographic expanse
and population. This can have the effect of limiting
access to a county elections office headquarters. To
increase the accessibility of same-day registration and
voting, AB 1436 authorizes counties to offer same-day
registration and voting at other sites in addition to
the central headquarters."
2. Election Day Registration : The concept of "same day"
registration and voting raises a number of issues that
the committee may wish to consider. Implementing
procedures to direct voters to the elections official's
office are important to the success of same day voting.
In addition, elections officials will need to make
preparations to serve a significantly larger number of
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voters in their offices on election day. For instance,
in Los Angeles County, if even one-half of one percent
of the eligible voters in the county attempted to
register to vote and vote in the office of the
elections official on election day, the office would
have to process nearly 30,000 voters. Ensuring that
elections officials' offices have sufficient parking,
voting equipment, personnel, and ballots to handle the
crowds on election day could pose a significant
challenge for many counties.
3. Delayed Canvass : Under existing law, at all
elections, a voter claiming to be properly registered
but whose qualifications to vote cannot be immediately
established upon review of the precinct voter index or
records on file with the county elections official, is
entitled to vote a provisional ballot. Current law
requires the elections official to compare the
signature on the ballot with the signature on the
voter's affidavit of registration. If the signatures
do not match or the provisional ballot is not signed,
the ballot is rejected. This bill, which allows a
person to register and vote a provisional ballot on
election day, adds a new time-consuming step to an
already busy time period for the county elections
officials. While this may not delay the canvass for
many smaller counties that usually have no difficulty
completing the official canvass of ballots by the
deadline, larger counties, such as Los Angeles, that
frequently take the full amount of time available to
certify elections results, will likely be significantly
impacted.
Additionally, it is unclear how long it will take to
verify a voter's information through the various
databases. Does this verification occur in real time?
Or does it take 1-2 days? Again, as stated above, this
bill could hinder the ability of a number of counties
to certify election results by the deadline established
under existing law.
4. Postal Delays : On March 13, 2012, this committee
held a joint oversight hearing with the Assembly
Elections and Redistricting Committee on the recent and
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proposed United States Postal Service closures and the
impact on voters and the upcoming presidential
elections. At the hearing, five county elections
officials testified as to the impact that recent post
office and processing facilities closures were having
on them as well as any anticipated challenges they saw
ahead with more closures expected. One of the major
impacts affecting the counties is mail delivery time
delays - some counties experienced delivery times of up
to 5-7 days as opposed to usual 1-3 day mail delivery
time.
The Postal Service has 13 processing facilities proposed
for closure in California. While the Postal Service
agreed to a moratorium on closing or consolidating
additional post offices or processing facilities until
after May 15th of this year, plans are still underway
to move forward with the first phase of consolidations
and closures.
The new circumstances surrounding the elections this year
present new challenges - particularly for those
registering and voting by mail. Current law allows a
person to register up until 15 days before an election
and allows the affidavit, if it is postmarked on or
before the 15th day before the election, to be
processed as long as all other eligibility requirements
are met. Through no fault of their own, mail delivery
delays could significantly impact a voter's ability to
register in time to vote for an election.
5. Other Potential Impacts in California : 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 to 25, by voters who had moved in the
last six months, and by Latinos and newly-naturalized
citizens. The Dmos study, however, was based on the
assumption that voters woul6.d be allowed to register
to vote on election day at the polling place. The
study additionally notes that an election day voter
registration system that requires voters "to engage in
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excessive travel on election day is not likely to
facilitate as many voters utilizing it as would a
system allowing voters to simply register and vote at
their local polling place."
7. Similar Legislation : SB 641 (Calderon) of 2011,
which is substantially similar to this bill, was held
on the suspense file of the Assembly Appropriations
Committee. SB 641 would have established conditional
voter registration, thereby allowing a person to
register to vote and voter at the office of a county
elections official at any time, including election day,
if certain requirements were met.
SB 1140 (Yee) and AB 1531 (Portantino) of 2010 were
similar to this bill. Both bills would have created a
one-stop mechanism for a person to register to vote and
vote at the office of county elections official at any
time up to and including election day once the state
had deployed a new statewide voter registration
database. SB 1140 was held on the Assembly
Appropriations Committee's suspense file, and AB 1531
was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's
suspense file
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 4-1
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 11-6
Assembly Floor: 47-26
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: AACRE
ACLU
Advancement Project
All Education Matters
California Church Impact
California Civil Rights Coalition
California Common Cause
California Communities United Institute
California Labor Federation
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California League of Conservation Voters
California National Organization for Women
California Participation Project
California State Conference of the NAACP
CalPIRG
County of Santa Clara Supervisor, Second District
Courage Campaign
Democracy for America
Democrats of North Orange County
Empower San Diego
Energy Action Coalition
Equality CA
Equal Justice Society
Fair Elections Legal Network
FairVote Action
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Greenlining Institute
GROW I Planetpov.com
League of Women Voters of California
MALDEF
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Council of Jewish Women California
National Council of Jewish Women Los Angels
Progressive States Action
Robert F. Kennedy Democratic Club
Rock the Vote
San Bernardino County Democratic Committee
SEIU
SW Voter Registration Education Project
University of California Student Association
Oppose: None received
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