BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 149|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 149
Author: Weber (D)
Amended: 5/24/13 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 4-1, 7/2/13
AYES: Torres, Hancock, Padilla, Yee
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 4-2, 8/12/13
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Gaines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 62-13, 5/30/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Voting rights: county probation departments
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires county probation departments to
either establish a hyperlink on its Internet Web site to the
Secretary of State's (SOS) voting rights guide for incarcerated
persons, or to post a notice that contains the SOS Internet Web
site address where the voting rights guide can be found.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
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1.Requires the Legislature to provide for the disqualification
of electors while mentally incompetent or imprisoned or on
parole for the conviction of a felony.
2.Requires that a person be a U.S. citizen, California resident,
not in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and
at least 18 years of age at the time of the next election to
be entitled to register to vote in this state.
3.Requires the facility administrator of a local detention
facility to develop written policies and procedures whereby
the county registrar of voters allows qualified voters to vote
in local, state, and federal elections, pursuant to election
codes.
This bill:
1.Requires each county probation department to either:
A. Establish and maintain on its Internet Web site a link
to SOS's Internet Web site that contains where the voting
rights guide for incarcerated persons may be found; or,
B. Post, in each office where probationers are seen, a
notice that contains the Internet Web site address at which
the voting rights guide for incarcerated persons may be
found.
Background
Criminal Justice Realignment & Inmate Voting Eligibility . In
2011, California passed a series of bills known as the Criminal
Justice Realignment Act. Prior to realignment, most felony
sentences were served in state prison. Under realignment,
certain lower-level felony offenders, who would have been
sentenced to state prison, are now sentenced to serve their time
in custody in county jail. Additionally, after release from
custody and depending on the offense and sentence, realignment
created the option of an inmate to be released to a term of
post-release community supervision (under the control of the
local probation department) or mandatory supervision.
With the enactment of realignment, the SOS's office issued a
memorandum to determine its impact on voting eligibility. The
SOS's office concluded that realignment "does not change the
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voting status of offenders convicted of realignment-defined
low-level felonies, either because they serve their felony
sentences in county jail instead of state prison or because the
mandatory supervision that is a condition of their release from
prison is labeled something other than 'parole.' Offenders
convicted of realignment-defined low-level felonies continue to
be disqualified from voting while serving a felony sentence in
county jail, while at the discretion of the court serving a
concluding portion of that term on county-supervised probation,
or while they remain under mandatory 'post release community
supervision' after release from state prison." (Cal. Sect. of
State Off., Voter Registration: Status of Persons Convicted
Under State's New Criminal Justice Realignment Statutes,
Memorandum # 11134 (Dec. 5, 2011).)
Consequently, the SOS revised the language on the California
voter registration form and requires a person to attest under
penalty of perjury the following:
I am a U.S. citizen and will be at least 18 years old on
Election Day. I am not in prison, on parole, serving a
state prison sentence in county jail, serving a sentence
for a felony pursuant to subdivision (h) of Penal Code
Section 1170, or on post release community supervision. I
understand that it is a crime to intentionally provide
incorrect information on this form. I declare under
penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of
California that the information on this form is true and
correct.
(Cal. Sect. of State Off., Voter Registration: New Felon
Eligibility Language, Memorandum # 13023 (Feb. 25, 2013).)
Moreover, to reflect the opinion of the SOS's office, the
voter's rights guide for incarcerated persons currently states
that inmates in county jail serving a state prison sentence or a
felony sentence under Penal Code Section 1170(h) or on parole,
mandatory supervision, or post release are ineligible to vote.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 938 (Weber) requires the clerk of the superior court in each
county, when furnishing the elections official with a list of
persons who have been convicted of felonies, to include the last
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four digits of the social security number of each person, if
available, along with other specified information.
AB 821 (Ridley-Thomas, 2005) would have required county
elections officials to provide affidavits of registration and
copies of the "Guide to Inmate Voting" to state and local
detention facilities so that those detention facilities could
notify specified individuals of their right to vote. AB 821
failed passage in the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and
Constitutional Amendments Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, unknown,
potentially minor admin costs (General).
Although this bill is a state mandate and costs are potentially
reimbursable from the General Fund, the county probation
departments have indicated very minor, absorbable costs for
complying with the notice requirement.
SUPPORT : (Per Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments
Committee analysis of 5/24/13 - - unable to reverify at time of
writing)
A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing)
Advancement Project
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Broken No More
California Association of Nonprofits
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
California Common Cause
California Correctional Peace Officers Association
California Public Defenders Association
Center for Living and Learning
Drug Policy Alliance
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Rock the Vote
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
Tarzana Treatment Centers, Inc.
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, AB
149 aims to ensure that persons involved in the criminal justice
system are given accurate information about their voting rights
and are afforded the opportunity to participate in the civic
life of their communities by requiring each county probation
department to do one of the following: (a) establish and
maintain on the county probation department's Internet Web site
a hyperlink to the Internet Web site at which the SOS's voting
rights guide for incarcerated persons may be found or (b) post
in each probation office where probationers are seen, a notice
that contains the Internet Web site address at which the SOS's
voting rights guide for incarcerated persons may be found.
In a phone survey conducted immediately prior to the 2012
presidential election, one in three elections offices could not
provide correct information about voting with a felony
conviction.
Given the confusion among those responsible for administering
the law, it is no surprise that people who are legally entitled
to vote either don't try out of fear that they would be
committing a crime, have misconceptions as it relates to the
law, or are wrongly turned away.
Policies that result in the potential voting disfranchisement of
people who have paid their debt to society offend fundamental
tenets of democracy. The problem is only exacerbated when state
and local election officials who are most likely misinformed
about the law operate based on that misinformation or turn away
people who have a legal right to vote.
We know that countless reports such as Uggen & Manza's study of
voting rights and recidivism as well as Brennan Center for
Justice and Democracy's study of voting rights restoration have
echoed the sentiment that there is a strong correlation between
voting and reduced recidivism. By offering voter registration
information to the thousands of eligible voters who pass through
our criminal justice system, the state will be taking an
important step toward increasing its dismal voter registration
rate.
This bill compliments and enhances current practice by providing
accurate voting rights information. Additionally, the public
welfare and safety of our communities will be enhanced by the
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civic participation of all eligible voters, which includes those
who are attempting to successfully re-enter their communities.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 62-13, 5/30/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Cooley,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Harkey,
Roger Hernández, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal,
Medina, Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Pan,
Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Skinner,
Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams,
Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Conway, Beth Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Linder, Logue,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell, Olsen, Salas, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Gorell, Holden, Patterson, Vacancy
RM:ej 8/14/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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