BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 131
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Date of Hearing: March 19, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 131 (Williams) - As Introduced: January 15, 2013
SUBJECT : Voter registration: affidavits: rebuttable
presumptions.
SUMMARY : Provides that a person's failure to identify his or
her place of birth on an affidavit of registration shall not
preclude his or her affidavit from being deemed complete.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires an affidavit of voter registration to contain a space
for the registrant to provide his or her state or country of
birth.
2)Provides that if the county elections official receives an
affidavit of registration that does not include portions of
the information for which space is provided, the county
elections official shall apply the following rebuttable
presumptions:
a) If no middle name or initial is shown, it is presumed
that none exists;
b) If no party affiliation is shown, it is presumed that
the affiant has declined to disclose a party preference;
c) If no execution date is shown, it is presumed that the
affidavit was executed on or before the 15th day prior to
the election if the affidavit is received by the county
elections official on or before the 15th day prior to the
election or if the affidavit is postmarked on or before the
15th day prior to the election and is received by mail by
the county elections official; and,
d) If the affiant fails to identify his or her state of
birth within the United States, it is presumed that the
affiant was born in a state or territory of the United
States if the birthplace of the affiant is shown as "United
States," "U.S.A." or other recognizable term designating
the United States.
AB 131
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FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
County election officials must engage in the time consuming
practice of contacting potential voters when a piece of
information is missing from a voter registration form.
While all information requested of potential voters is
important, a person's place of birth is not used to confirm
his or her eligibility to vote. Further, counties have no
clear authority to process incomplete registration cards
that omit place of birth.
This measure will save county clerks valuable time and
resources by making it optional to answer a registration
form question that is not required by the federal
government or by 39 other states. Further, the question of
place of birth is duplicative in nature because it is not
utilized to verify eligibility. The eligibility of the
potential voter is verified in the signature box under
penalty of perjury.
AB 131 clarifies that if a registrant fails to identify his
or her place of birth, it is presumed that he or she is
eligible to register to vote as long as he or she marked
the box stating that he or she is a citizen of the United
States and signs the affidavit under penalty of perjury.
As a result, AB 131 protects voting rights and assists
counties with cost savings by removing the mandate to
contact registrants and obtain this information.
2)Federal Voter Registration Application : The National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-31), also known as
"Motor Voter," requires every state to accept a uniform
federal voter registration application by mail, among other
provisions. Under Motor Voter, the federal voter registration
application may require only such identifying information and
other information as is necessary to enable the appropriate
election official to assess the eligibility of the applicant
and to administer voter registration and other parts of the
election process. As a result, the federal voter registration
AB 131
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application, which is accepted for voter registration in
California pursuant to federal law, does not request
information about the applicant's place of birth.
Because the uniform federal voter registration application does
not contain a space for the applicant's place of birth, any
Californian who registers to vote using that form will have
his or her registration processed even though he or she has
not specified his or her place of birth on the voter
registration application. On the other hand, any voter who
attempts to register using the state's voter registration
affidavit and who leaves the space for "place of birth" blank
does not have his or her registration processed unless the
county elections official is able to contact that voter and
obtain that information from the voter.
Given the fact that a person's place of birth is not relevant in
determining whether that person is eligible to vote, the
committee should consider whether it is appropriate for a
voter registration application on the uniform federal form to
be treated differently than an application on the state form,
as is the case under existing law.
3)Argument in Support : The California Association of Clerks and
Election Officials write in support:
California's Election law requires any person who desires
to vote submit a completed voter registration form. This
legislation would allow the election official to deem a
voter registration form complete [if] a voter omits their
place of birth, as long as the completed form is executed
under penalty of perjury stating that the affiant meets all
criteria to be eligible to register. This proposal
recognizes that, in a national election cycle, many
eligible registrants choose to complete the National Voter
Registration Form to register to vote in California. This
National form does not contain a space for the affiant to
include his or her place of birth, and is yet still deemed
complete under California law. This proposal allows the
election official to treat all registrants equally,
regardless of the form they may submit. Election officials
may, should they choose, still attempt to reach the voter
to obtain the missing information, but would not be
prohibited from continuing to process the otherwise valid
registration.
AB 131
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4)Previous Legislation : SB 1434 (Price) of 2010, would have
created a rebuttable presumption, when a person failed to
identify his or her place of birth on an affidavit of
registration, that the person is eligible to vote if he or she
marked the box on the voter registration affidavit indicating
that he or she was a citizen of the United States. That bill
was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who argued that the
most effective solution would be to simply remove information
relating to place of birth from the state form.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Secretary of State Debra Bowen (Sponsor)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Common Cause
League of Women Voters of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lori Barber / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094