BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 397
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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 397 (Yee)
          As Amended  August 26, 2011
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :25-14  
           
           ELECTIONS           5-2         APPROPRIATIONS      12-5        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Fong, Bonilla, Gatto,     |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield,     |
          |     |Mendoza, Swanson          |     |Bradford, Charles         |
          |     |                          |     |Calderon, Campos, Davis,  |
          |     |                          |     |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara,  |
          |     |                          |     |Mitchell, Solorio         |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |Nays:|Logue, Valadao            |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly,         |
          |     |                          |     |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner    |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY :   Permits online voter registration to begin prior to 
          the completion of a new statewide voter registration database, 
          if certain conditions are met.  Specifically,  this bill  :   

          1)Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the 
            Secretary of State (SOS) to develop a process and the 
            infrastructure to allow the electronic copy of the signature 
            of a person who is registering to vote to be transferred to 
            the SOS and to county election management systems to allow a 
            person who is qualified to register to vote in California to 
            register to vote electronically on the Internet Web site of 
            the SOS.

          2)Permits online voter registration to begin, pursuant to 
            conditions outlined in existing law, on the date that either 
            of the following occurs:

             a)   The SOS certifies that the state has a statewide voter 
               registration database that complies with the requirements 
               of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA); or,

             b)   The SOS executes a declaration stating that the 
               following conditions have occurred:








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               i)     The United States Elections Assistance Commission 
                 has approved the use of HAVA funding to provide online 
                 voter registration in advance of the deployment of the 
                 statewide voter registration database, or other federal 
                 funding is available and approved for the same purpose;

               ii)    The DMV and the SOS have developed a process and the 
                 infrastructure necessary to transfer the electronic copy 
                 of a person's signature from the DMV to the SOS and to 
                 county election management systems; and,

               iii)   All county election management systems have been 
                 modified to receive and store electronic voter 
                 registration information received from the SOS in order 
                 to allow a person to register to vote pursuant to this 
                 bill.

          3)Exempts the SOS from various information technology 
            requirements, and from project and funding approvals, for the 
            purposes of implementing this bill as expeditiously as 
            possible.
           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations 
          Committee:

          1)One-time costs of around $250,000 to the DMV, and one-time 
            costs of $150,000 and ongoing costs of $40,000 to the SOS to 
            develop and maintain online voter registration capability 
            prior to implementation of the statewide voter registration 
            database.  Per the bill's requirements, these costs would have 
            to be covered by federal funds.

          2)To the extent this bill results in the availability of online 
            voter registration sooner than the expected completion of the 
            statewide voter registration database, and significant numbers 
            of registrants use this option, the SOS, DMV, and counties 
            will more quickly realize significant and ongoing savings from 
            reduced paper processing of voter registrations.

           COMMENTS  :  According to the author, "ÝC]urrent law allows voters 
          to submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically 
          under Elections Code § 2196 once the statewide online database 
          known as VoteCal is implemented.  Unfortunately, VoteCal is 
          delayed until at least 2015.  In the 21st century, especially 








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          here in California, it is long overdue to have online voter 
          registration. SB 397 will not only help protect the integrity of 
          the vote, but will allow many more individuals the opportunity 
          to register and participate in our democracy."

          On October 29, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Help 
          America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 (116 STAT. 1666, Public Law 
          107-252).  Among other provisions, HAVA requires every state to 
          implement a computerized statewide voter registration list.  To 
          fully comply with the requirements of HAVA, the state is in the 
          process of developing a new statewide voter registration system 
          known as VoteCal.  

          Since the plans for VoteCal were developed, the Legislature has 
          approved a number of bills that sought to take advantage its 
          capabilities.  One of those bills was SB 381 (Ron Calderon), 
          Chapter 613, Statutes of 2008, which will allow a person to 
          register to vote on the SOS's Internet Web site if he or she has 
          a valid California driver's license or state identification 
          card.  SB 381 will not become operative until VoteCal has been 
          deployed.  According to information provided to the Legislature 
          when it was considering SB 381, online voter registration is 
          expected to save the state and counties a significant amount of 
          money by reducing costs for printing, processing, and data input 
          from paper voter registration forms.  Additionally, online voter 
          registration is expected to improve the accuracy of the voter 
          registration rolls while making voter registration more 
          convenient for many voters.  At the time the Legislature was 
          considering SB 381, VoteCal was expected to be deployed by 2010. 
           However, since that time, delays in the procurement process 
          pushed back the estimated completion date for the VoteCal system 
          to 2015.  This bill would allow online voter registration to 
          proceed outside of the development of the VoteCal system, 
          provided that adjustments are made to existing systems that 
          allow the SOS to obtain an electronic copy of the signature from 
          the DMV of each person attempting to register to vote online, 
          and to transmit that signature to the county elections official. 
           This bill may help accelerate the availability of online voter 
          registration, and thus accelerate the cost savings and other 
          benefits from deploying such a system.

          Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion 
          of this bill.









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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 
          319-2094FN: 0002178