BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1157
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Date of Hearing: April 23, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1157 (Jones) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
SUBJECT : Elections: voting procedures.
SUMMARY : Makes significant changes to voting procedures.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a vote by mail (VBM) identification envelope to
include the last four digits of the voter's California
driver's license number or California identification card
number or, if the voter has neither, the last four digits of
the voter's social security number (SSN). Requires the
signature and numeric identifying information to be verified
as consistent with the voter's state or federal records before
counting the ballot. Requires the VBM identification envelope
to include a security flap or sleeve to conceal the voter's
signature and identifying information during the mailing.
2)Provides that a VBM ballot of a member of the Armed Forces of
the United States who is an "absent uniformed services voter,"
as defined by federal law, is timely cast if postmarked or
signed and dated on or before election day and received by the
voter's elections official not later than 21 days after
election day.
3)Requires a voter, prior to receiving a ballot, to present to a
member of the precinct board proof of identification that
satisfies all of the following requirements:
a) The document shows the name of the individual to whom
the document was issued, and the name conforms to the name
in the individual's voter registration record;
b) The document shows a photograph of the individual
presenting the identification;
c) The document includes an expiration date, and the
document is not expired at the time of voting or expired
less than two years prior to the general election;
d) The document was issued by the United States or the
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State of California or is a valid tribal member
identification card issued by an Indian tribe recognized by
the United States government.
4)Provides that if a voter is unable to, or refuses to, provide
proof of identification as required by the provisions of this
bill, he or she may execute a declaration, certified to be
correct under penalty of perjury, declaring that he or she is
registered to vote. Requires a voter, upon execution of the
declaration, to be issued a provisional ballot as required by
existing law and an envelope to be competed in the same manner
as a VBM envelope.
5)Requires the fee for an original or replacement state
identification card to be waived for a person who requires the
identification card for the purposes of satisfying the
requirements above.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires a voter who appears at the polling place to vote to
announce his or her name and address to a precinct officer.
Requires the precinct officer, upon finding the name in the
roster of voters, to repeat the voter's name and address.
Requires the voter to then write his or her name and residence
address on a roster of voters, whereupon the voter is provided
a ballot.
2)Permits a voter to vote a provisional ballot if his or her
qualification or entitlement to vote cannot be immediately
established upon examination of the roster of voters for the
precinct or upon examination of the records on file with the
county elections official.
3)Authorizes a member of the precinct board to challenge the
ability of a person to vote on various grounds, including that
the voter is not the person whose name appears on the index,
is not a precinct resident, is not a U.S. citizen, has already
voted on that day, or is on parole for the conviction of a
felony.
4)Provides that any person who votes more than once, attempts to
vote more than once, or impersonates or attempts to
impersonate a voter at an election is guilty of a crime
punishable by imprisonment for 16 months or two or three
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years, or in county jail not exceeding one year.
5)Requires a voter who submits his or her voter registration
form by mail and who has not previously voted to present one
of a number of specified documents to establish identity
before receiving a ballot. This requirement only applies the
first time an individual votes after registering to vote.
6)Requires all VBM ballots to be received by the elections
official from whom they were obtained or by the precinct board
no later than the close of the polls on election day in order
to be counted.
7)Permits a military or overseas voter to register to vote and
apply for a VBM ballot by facsimile transmission. Requires an
elections official to send a VBM ballot by means of
transmission (mail, facsimile, or electronic transmission)
requested by a qualified military or overseas voter.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program; contains
a crimes and infractions disclaimer; contains reimbursement
direction.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
AB 1157 is designed to ensure the security and protection
of our sacred right to vote and will provide for uniform
identification at the polling place to protect the ballot
box from those who would attempt to cast a fraudulent vote.
It will also preserve the integrity of the ballot box by
changing the outdated current system, which worked well in
earlier times when poll workers knew most of their
neighbors, but does not work well in today's elections with
larger voting precincts in a modern, mobile society. It
should be a top priority of elected leaders to restore
public confidence in integrity of our voting system.
2)Voter Fraud Prevention : In the background information
provided by the author's office, the author argues that the
current election system has no safeguards to ensure that
non-eligible, persons do not vote. However, the author has
not provided any evidence that voter fraud of the type that
would be prevented by identification requirements at the polls
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and on VBM ballots is a problem in need of a solution.
California law already requires the elections officials to
compare the signature on a VBM ballot envelope with the
signature on that voter's affidavit of registration before the
VBM ballot may be counted. If those signatures do not match,
the ballot will not be counted. A person who casts a
fraudulent VBM ballot at an election can be charged with a
number of different felonies, any one of which is punishable
by up to three years imprisonment. Given that a signature
comparison is already done on every VBM ballot before the
ballot is counted to protect against fraud, and given that
casting a fraudulent VBM ballot is a felony, it is unlikely
that VBM ballot fraud is widespread.
In addition, a voter who wishes to vote at the polls on election
day must have and confirm his or her name and address on the
roster of voters. If a voter's name is not on the roster,
that person is allowed to vote a provisional ballot, which is
later reviewed by the elections official to determine the
person's right to vote, before being included in the official
canvass. As such, the roster of voters plays a big role on
election day to minimize the occurrence of fraud. Current law
requires county elections officials to take several steps to
ensure that the voter rolls are accurate, such as continuous
review and maintenance of the rolls to remove obsolete,
duplicative, and non-eligible names.
Other efforts required by law to reduce potential fraud include
a voter fraud hotline maintained by the Secretary of State
(SOS), the ability of a member of the precinct board to
challenge any person attempting to vote at the polls if the
voter's qualifications to vote are in question, and vigorous
prosecutions by local law enforcement agencies working
together with the SOS's office.
Furthermore, according to information provided by the SOS's
Election Fraud Investigation Unit, from 1994 to 2010, there
have been 23 convictions for double voting, 6 convictions for
fraudulent voting, and 4 convictions for non-citizen voting.
However, it is unclear whether these acts occurred while
attempting to vote at the polls or if the violations occurred
by a VBM voter. However, given the small amount of
convictions in the past decade, it is reasonable to believe
that the current efforts to thwart voter fraud are working.
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3)Voters Who Lack ID : A November 2006 survey by the Brennan
Center for Justice found that 11% of United States citizens do
not have government-issued photo identification. To the extent
that this figure is reflective of the California electorate,
it is possible that a significant number of Californians who
are eligible and registered to vote do not have a form of
identification that would meet the requirements of this bill.
This same survey also demonstrated that certain groups -
primarily poor, elderly, and minority citizens - are less
likely to possess these forms of identification.
Although this bill waives the fee for an individual to obtain
an identification card if the request for the identification
card is for voting purposes, it does not provide any
assistance to those individuals to meet the sometimes
difficult requirements of obtaining an identification card.
For example, in order to be issued a California identification
card, an individual must go to a Department of Motor Vehicle's
office during business hours and provide, among other things,
verification of birth date by submitting documents such as a
certified copy from the state or local vital statistics office
of the individual's birth certificate. Such documentation may
be difficult to obtain and typically requires an additional
fee.
4)Will This Bill Disenfranchise Voters Due to Inadvertent
Errors ? While it seems unlikely that this bill will provide
any meaningful protection against fraud, it also seems likely
that one consequence of this bill will be the invalidation of
a number of legally cast ballots. For instance, if a voter
transposed two of the digits from his or her driver's license
number, identification card number, or SSN on their VBM
envelope, his or her ballot would be rejected under the
provisions of this bill even if the signature on the ballot
was a match to the signature on that voter's registration
card. Similarly, to the extent that a person neglected to
provide the last four digits of his or her driver's license
number, identification card number, or SSN, or failed to
provide that information due to fear of identity theft, this
bill would require that the ballot be invalidated even if
there was no question that the ballot was cast by the voter to
whom it was issued.
5)Carter-Baker Commission : The background information provided
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by the author's office cites a passage from the Carter-Baker
Commission (Commission) report, arguing that voters should be
required to show identification before receiving a ballot as a
measure to combat fraud.
Although the Commission found that "[t]here is no evidence of
extensive fraud in U.S. elections or of multiple voting," the
commission nonetheless proposed requiring voters to show
identification before receiving a ballot. However, the
specific voter identification proposal contained in the
Commission report differs significantly from the approach
proposed by this bill. In fact, the co-chairs of the
Commission (former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary
of State James A. Baker III) specifically opposed the
state-by-state approach advanced by this bill in an op-ed
printed in the New York Times just days after the release of
the Commission report. Instead, the Commission proposed
requiring voters to present the Real ID card - a standardized
driver's license mandated by federal law - but only if the
states also "assume the responsibility to seek out citizens to
. . . register voters." This bill fails to implement a reform
that the Commission believed was necessary to keep an
identification requirement from being implemented in a
discriminatory manner.
6)Arguments in Opposition : The Mexican American Legal Defense
and Educational Fund writes in opposition:
Rather than facilitating voter participation, AB 1157 will
unnecessarily restrict it. The legislation requires
polling place voters to present identification and
restricts such voters to only government-issued photo
identification. Many voters who are elderly, low-income or
survivors of domestic violence do not have or cannot afford
a driver's license or a United States passport, or the
underlying documents necessary to obtain such
identification. Although AB 1157 provides for a fee waiver
for individuals seeking a DMV-issued identification card,
the fee waiver does not cover the costs associated with the
often lengthy time it takes to carry out transactions at
the DMV, such as lost wages, nor does it cover the cost of
obtaining the underlying documents necessary to obtain an
identification card. In addition, requiring proof of
identity will discourage eligible citizens from exercising
their right to vote and create delays at polling places.
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Additionally, AB 1157 would create new barriers for voters
who are casting vote-by-mail ballots. Vote-by-mail voters
are already required to write down several pieces of
information on their vote-by-mail envelope, and common
problems include voters neglecting to sign or date their
vote-by-mail envelope or to complete other required
information on the vote-by-mail ballot. These problems are
multiplied for voters who face significant barriers to
voting such as new voters and limited English proficient
voters. California should strive to make the vote-by-mail
process easier and more accessible for voters rather than
making it more difficult.
7)State Mandates : The 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 state budgets
included the suspension of various state mandates as a
mechanism for cost savings. Included on the list of
suspensions were all six existing elections-related mandates.
All the existing elections-related mandates have been proposed
for suspension again by the Governor in his budget for the
2013-2014 fiscal year. The Committee may wish to consider
whether it is desirable to create new election mandates when
current elections-related mandates are suspended.
8)Previous Legislation : AB 1716 (Garrick) of 2012, and AB 945
(Donnelly) of 2011, were substantially similar to this bill,
and both failed passage in this committee.
AB 663 (Morrell) of 2011, would have required a voter to present
proof of identification before being permitted to sign the
roster of voters and receive a ballot. AB 663 failed passage
in this committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
American Association of University Women
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality
California Common Cause
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California State Council of the Service Employees International
Union
League of Women Voters of California
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Analysis Prepared by : Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094