BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1122
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 1122 (Levine) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
SUBJECT : Voter Registration: Department of Motor Vehicles
SUMMARY : Requires DMV to coordinate with the Secretary of State
(SOS), to the extent the State's implementation plan for the
National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 is inconsistent
with federal law, to take additional steps to fully implement
and further comply with NVRA, as specified.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires DMV to provide the opportunity to register to vote to
individuals who apply for, renew or change an address for a
driver's license or personal identification card issued by
DMV.
2)Requires change of address information received by DMV to be
used for the purpose of updating voter registration records,
unless the registrant chooses otherwise.
3)Provides that a person may not be registered to vote except by
affidavit of registration.
4)Provides that a properly executed affidavit of registration is
deemed to be effective upon receipt of the affidavit by the
county elections official if received on or before the 15th
day before election day, postmarked on or before the 15th day
prior to the election and received by mail by the county
elections officials, or submitted to DMV or accepted by any
other public agency designated as a voter registration agency
on or before the 15th day prior to the election.
5)At the federal level, requires each state to offer voter
registration services at motor vehicle agency offices, offices
that provide public assistance, offices that provide
state-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services
to persons with disabilities, Armed Forces recruitment
offices, and other state and local offices within the state
designated as NVRA voter registration agencies.
AB 1122
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6)Requires that a driver's license or identification application
must also serve as an application for voter registration
unless the applicant fails to sign the voter registration
application. Specifies that the voter registration portion of
the application is prohibited from requiring any duplicate
information that is required for driver's license or
identification portion of the application.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, more than 500,000 California
adults annually apply for a new driver's license. Under NVRA,
these Californians are to be afforded the opportunity to use the
driver's license application form as a voter registration form.
However, currently DMV asks motorists to fill out a separate
voter registration form, tear it off, affix postage, address the
form, and drop it into the mail. The author asserts that this
was never the intent of NVRA and it is time that California
began providing the ease in voter registration as envisioned
when NVRA was signed into law 20 years ago.
Under the current two-step process, DMV provides every person
who applies for or renews a driver's license or identification
card, or submits a change of address form with a voter
registration card (VRC). The VRC can be used to register to
vote or to re-register after a change in name, address, or party
preference. When voters update their address with a DMV office,
the new address is sent electronically to the SOS's statewide
voter registration database, which then shares the information
with county elections officials who update voter registration
records. When voters move to a new county, the DMV instructs
them to complete a new VRC. DMV accepts completed VRCs and
forwards them to the SOS or the county where the voter lives.
This process does not comply with the federal NVRA, which
generally prohibits an individual who wants to register to vote
to be required to provide any information that duplicates
information already required on the driver's license form.
Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, the actual
implementation of NVRA requirements took effect on January 1,
1995. NVRA, also known as the "Motor Voter Act," was intended
to increase voting opportunities for eligible voters and
maintain their registration. On August 12, 1994, the Governor
Pete Wilson signed an executive order to direct state and local
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agencies to implement NVRA only to the extent that federal
funding was provided. However, the federal government did not
provide funding to states for NVRA implementation.
Consequently, when NVRA took effect in 1995, several states
failed to take the steps necessary to comply with the law and
several also challenged the constitutionality of the federal
mandate. States involved in the first round of cases included
California, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New
York, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.
Three separate lawsuits concerning California's implementation
of NVRA were filed in federal court. All three cases were
combined into a single proceeding and were heard before a
federal district court in San Jose on March 2, 1995. The courts
found NVRA constitutional, despite the lack of federal funding
provided to states, and the court ruled that California was
obligated to implement NVRA. The court ordered the state to
submit an implementation plan to the court for review to ensure
conformity of the requirements of NVRA.
The plan submitted by the state would have brought California
into full alignment with NVRA requirements except for DMV's
two-step application process. Despite this inconsistency, the
federal court reviewed and approved the state's implementation
plan and according to the SOS, the state's current provisional
voting laws meet NVRA requirements.
However, as the author notes, despite the state's implementation
plan being approved by the federal court, a strict reading of
NVRA would suggest that the state is not in full compliance with
NVRA. AB 1122 has the potential to highlight this inconsistency
and ultimately bring the state into full compliance with NVRA.
Double referred : This bill was heard on April 9, 2013, in the
Assembly Elections Committee and passed out with a vote of 5-2.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Common Cause
Opposition
AB 1122
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None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Leon / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093