BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 112
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Date of Hearing: June 11, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 112 (Monning) - As Amended: June 3, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : Voter information: public examination.
SUMMARY : Requires any voter registration card information in
existence 100 years after the creation of the record to be made
available to the public. Provides that if records are contained
in the great registers of voters and the bound register contains
information covering more than one year, the records shall not
be available to the public until the entire contents of the
register have been recorded for at least 100 years.
EXISTING LAW
1)Provides that the home address, telephone number, e-mail
address, precinct number, or other number specified by the
Secretary of State (SOS) for voter registration purposes, and
prior registration information shown on the voter registration
card for all registered voters is confidential and prohibits
the disclosure to any person, except under specified
circumstances.
2)Provides that a California driver's license number, California
identification card number, Social Security number, or other
unique identifier used by the State of California for purposes
of voter identification shown on a voter registration card, or
added to the voter registration records in compliance with the
federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S. C. Sec. 15301
et seq.), are confidential and disclosure of this information
is prohibited.
3)Provides that the signature of the voter that is shown on the
voter registration card is confidential and prohibits its
disclosure to any person, except as provided.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has been keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
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1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
SB 112 seeks to make historic voter rolls, including bound
books called "Great Registers," available to the public for
the purpose of historical and genealogical interests. These
county voter registration records contain valuable
historical information . . .
Access to this data, much of it from the late 19th and
early 20th century, was restricted to official, political,
scholarly, and journalistic purposes in 1994 with SB 1518
(Marks) and is not available to the public for exploration
of their genealogical roots. It is the author's belief that
these historic records should be available to anyone with
interest in California history. SB 112 intends to remedy
this flaw by making historic voter records available to the
public 100 years after their creation.
Making these records available to the public after 100
years would mirror a similar state law allowing public
access to any state record given to the California State
Archives after 75 years. U.S. Census records, which contain
information very similar to that found in voter
registration forms, are released to the public by the
National Archives and Records Administration after being
sealed for 72 years. In accordance with the 72-Year Rule,
the National Archives most recently released the 1940
records on April 2, 2012.
It is important to note that waiting to make these records
available 100 years after creation ensures that no living
person's information will be made available to the public.
Personal identifiers such as social security and driver's
license numbers, which were not used in voter registration
cards until 1994, would be kept private for 100 years
before being made available. Some identifiers, such as
social security numbers, are made public after the passing
of any person on public death certificates.
Current state law requires that voter registration records
be kept confidential in perpetuity. Keeping these historic
records permanently unavailable to the public is
unnecessary, and restricts the public from tapping into
valuable historic information. California Elections Code
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section 2194 allows for some public access to these records
for "election, scholarly, journalistic, governmental, or
political purposes, as determined by the Secretary of
State." However, these provisions do not include one of the
most commons reasons members of the public want to access
California's historic voter rolls, which is for historical
or genealogical interest.
These historic records should be available to the public
after 100 years, a period of time which ensures the privacy
of a voter's record will be maintained for their lifetime.
SB 112 will align California statutes with similar public
access guidelines, such as the "72 years provision" used
when releasing confidential Census records.
2)Is Voter Registration Information Confidential ? The voter
registration rolls are not available to the general public.
However, California law allows certain voter information to be
released to a member of the California Legislature or U.S.
Congress, or to any candidate, any committee for or against a
proposed ballot measure, any person for election, scholarly,
journalistic, or political purposes, or for governmental
purposes. Even in these cases, a few items remain confidential
and are never provided to any requestor: voters' social
security numbers, driver's license numbers, and signatures.
3)Lawful Access to Public Records : Existing law establishes the
State Archives, with the SOS as custodian, and requires the
SOS to receive into the Archives any item, including any
paper, document, book, map or other type of record, that is
required by law to be delivered or filed with the Secretary.
Records that are housed with the State Archives, irrespective
of origin or the manner of which they are deposited, are to be
accessible to the public no later than 75 years after they are
created.
Currently all voter registration materials in California are
confidential and cannot be released to the public except for
specified purposes. Social Security numbers, and California
driver's license and identification card numbers began to be
used as personal identifiers for the purpose of voter
registration in 1994 and today's voter registration records
often contain confidential information such as an individual's
home address, telephone number, e-mail address, precinct
number, the voters' signature and prior voter registration
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information. This information is restricted from appearing on
any computer terminal, list, affidavit, duplicate affidavit,
or other medium routinely available to the public.
4)Information Contained in the Historical Voter Registration
Files : A wide variety of personal information has been
included in the historical voter registration files including
but not limited to: name, physical description, notations of
visible scars or marks, names of ancestors, age, height,
complexion description, eye and hair color, notation of
whether the voter was literate and/or able to sign his or her
name, occupation, party affiliation, precinct number, home
address, gender, date and place of marriage, state or county
of birth, naturalization date, name of spouse if naturalized,
and sensitive information such as a notations describing
physical disability, cause of death, or removal from voter
rolls for insanity or infamy.
5)Why Not Use the 72 Year Rule ? American citizens are legally
permitted to search and review all public documents obtained
from census records after 72 years have passed. The 72 year
census rule is based on the presumption that the average life
span of a citizen is approximately 70 to 85 years. It is
believed that a 72 year waiting period offers a reasonable
protection of people's privacy while offering research
opportunities to social scientists and people looking up
family history.
Under the California Public Records Act, certain records that
are housed with the California State Archives are permitted to
be accessed by the public no later than 75 years after they
are created, but this does not apply to voter registration
records which contain personal information that is excluded
from public access.
During the 2012 general election, it was well documented that
there are voters who reached or exceeded the age of 100 years
who are still fully engaged in the electoral process. To
ensure that no living person's information will be made
available to the public, this bill will allow voter
registration materials to be released to the public after 100
years have passed from the date the records were created.
6)Previous Legislation : AB 2719 (Laird), Chapter 783, Statutes
of 2004, provided that all records held by the State Archives
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are to be accessible to the public no later than 75 years
after they were created, and required the SOS to post on the
SOS's Internet Web site a public notice stating that on or
after January 1, 2005, all items 75 years old or older that
are on deposit in the State Archives shall be accessible to
the public.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Secretary of State Debra Bowen (Sponsor)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Association of Museums
National Coalition for History
Society of California Archivists
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lori Barber / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094