BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1436 (Feuer) - Voter Registration
Amended: August 6, 2012 Policy Vote: Pub Saf 5-1 E&CA
3-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: AB 1436 authorizes a person to conditionally
register to vote after the 15th day prior to an election, and to
cast a provisional ballot. This provision will become effective
January 1 following the year that the Secretary of State has
certified a statewide voter registration database.
Fiscal Impact: Unknown, potentially in excess of $1 million
reimbursable local mandate costs (General)
Actual costs to implement a conditional voter registration
program are unknown, however, if every county incurred expenses
of only $20,000, the total costs would be $1,160,000 at each
election which would be reimbursed from the General Fund as a
local mandate. While AB 1436 provides that implementation will
be contingent upon the Secretary of State certifying that the
state has a statewide voter registration database that complies
with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act,
counties will still incur costs associated with additional
labor, overtime, computers, ballots, and security.
Background: Existing law allows individuals who are eligible to
vote to execute an affidavit of voter registration up to 15 days
prior to an election. 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.
Additionally, 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
AB 1436 (Feuer)
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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 Secretary of State
shall assign the applicant a number that will serve to identify
the applicant for voter registration purposes.
Proposed Law: AB 1436 will 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.
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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.
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
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both the district attorney and the Secretary of State.
12.Establishes civil and criminal penalties for the commission
of fraud in the execution of a conditional voter
registration.
Related Legislation: This bill is similar to SB 641 (Calderon)
of 2011 and SB 1140 (Yee) of 2010 which were held on the
Suspense File in the Assembly Appropriations Committee; and to
AB 1531 (Portantino) which was held on this committee's Suspense
File in 2010. Those bills, however, were not contingent upon
the certification of VoteCal.
Staff Comments: Election Day Voter Registration in Other
States : In all, 10 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.
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North Dakota has no voter registration requirement at all.
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.
The Secretary of State's Office has been in the process of
implementing a new statewide voter registration database for
several years, as required by the Federal Help America Vote Act
(HAVA) of 2002. After difficulties with the prior vendor and
the termination of that contract, the SOS is currently in the
process of reviewing pre-qualification packages from new
bidders, and is expected to award a contract by the end of this
year. The expected completion date for the new database is
2015.