BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 113|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 113
Author: Jackson (D), et al.
Amended: 8/19/14
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 4-1, 4/2/13
AYES: Correa, Hancock, Padilla, Yee
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-1, 1/23/14
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Gaines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters
SENATE FLOOR : 24-8, 1/28/14
AYES: Beall, Block, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, De León,
DeSaulnier, Evans, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso,
Jackson, Leno, Liu, Mitchell, Padilla, Pavley, Roth,
Steinberg, Torres, Wolk, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Cannella, Fuller, Huff, Knight,
Vidak, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gaines, Lara, Lieu, Monning, Nielsen,
Walters, Wright, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-21, 8/25/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Elections: voter registration
SOURCE : Secretary of State
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DIGEST : This bill expands pre-registration by authorizing a
16-year-old to pre-register to vote once pre-registration is in
effect, provided he/she meets all other eligibility
requirements, as specified.
Assembly Amendments add double-jointing language with AB 2562
(Fong); provide that a county elections official is not
required to mail a residency confirmation postcard to any person
under 18 years of age who has submitted a properly executed
affidavit of registration and who will not be 18 years of age on
or before the primary election; prescribe the format of the
voter pre-registration notice and make conforming changes;
prohibit the provisions in this bill from becoming operative
unless the Secretary of State (SOS) certifies that the state has
a statewide voter registration database that complies with the
federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA); and make other
clarifying and technical changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Permits a person who is a United States citizen, a resident
of California, 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 register to vote.
2. Requires states to implement a statewide voter registration
database, as specified, pursuant to the federal HAVA.
3. Permits a person who is at least 17 years of age and who
otherwise meets all eligibility requirements to vote to
submit his/her affidavit of registration. Such a properly
executed registration is deemed effective as of the date that
the affiant will be 18 years of age, provided that the
information in the affidavit of registration is still current
at that time. The registrant must provide current
information to the county elections official before the
registration becomes effective if the information in the
current affidavit is incorrect.
4. Provides that the provisions regarding preregistration of
17-year-olds become operative only if the SOS certifies that
the state has a statewide voter registration database that
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complies with the requirements of HAVA.
5. Requires the local registrar of births and deaths to notify
the county elections official monthly of all deceased persons
17 years of age and over whose deaths were registered with
him/her or of whose deaths he/she was notified by the state
registrar of vital statistics.
This bill:
1.Lowers the minimum age for submitting an affidavit of
registration for purposes of pre-registering to vote from 17
to 16 years of age.
2.Requires a county elections official, in lieu of sending a
voter notification card required by existing law, to send a
voter pre-registration notice to a person under 18 years of
age who submits an affidavit of registration in accordance
with existing law or the provisions of this bill, upon the
determination that the affidavit of registration is properly
executed and that the person otherwise satisfies all
eligibility requirements to vote, except that he/she is under
18 years of age. Requires the county elections official to
send the voter pre-registration notice by nonforwardable,
first-class mail, address correction requested.
3.Creates a pre-registration voter notification card and
requires the card to be sent to a person under 18 years of age
who submits an affidavit of registration in accordance with
existing law or the provisions of this bill. Requires the
pre-registration voter notification card to be in the
following form:
VOTER NOTIFICATION
Thank you for registering to vote. You may vote in any
election held on or after your 18th birthday.
Your party preference is: (Name of political party)
Before any election in which you are eligible to vote, you
will receive a sample ballot and a voter pamphlet by mail.
If information on this card is incorrect, please contact
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our office or update your registration at the Internet Web
site of the Secretary of State (SOS).
4.Provides that a county elections official is not required to
mail a residency confirmation postcard pursuant to existing
law to any person under 18 years of age who has submitted a
properly executed affidavit of registration pursuant to the
provisions of this bill and who will not be 18 years of age on
or before the primary election.
5.Makes other corresponding changes.
6.Provides that the provisions of this bill shall become
operative only if the SOS certifies that the state has a
statewide voter registration database that complies with the
requirements of the federal HAVA.
7.Contains double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems
with AB 2562 (Fong) of the current legislative session.
Background
Other states . According to the National Conference of State
Legislatures (NCSL), the following 14 states permit voter
registration before the age of 18, but none prior to 16 (and
none permit voting until the age of 18): Alaska, California,
Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota,
Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wyoming.
NCSL also reports that the following 12 states permit
17-year-olds to vote in the primary election (presidential
caucuses in Iowa) if the voter will turn 18 before the general
election: Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine,
Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont,
and Virginia.
VoteCal status . The SOS has been in the process of implementing
a new statewide voter registration database for several years,
as required by the federal HAVA of 2002. After difficulties
with the prior vendor and the termination of that contract, the
SOS recently announced the selection of a new contractor to
develop the new VoteCal statewide voter registration database.
The Department of General Services approved the contract on
March 6, 2013. The SOS estimates that VoteCal will be fully
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implemented by 2016.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, minor annual
General Fund net costs, in the range of $50,000, to the extent
the availability of pre-registration to 16-year-olds increases
overall voter registration among those age 18 to 24 by about
10%. This cost estimate includes sending voter pre-registration
notices and assumes 60% of pre-registration would occur online
and the balance on paper, and that some of these
pre-registrations would have otherwise occurred at age 17, as
allowed under existing law once VoteCal is operational.
County costs to process additional registrations will be covered
through the existing reimbursement formula for this activity.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/25/14)
Secretary of State (source)
California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials
California Common Cause
CALPIRG
Common Cause
League of Women Voters of California
Rock the Vote
SEIU California
University of California Student Association
Vote Latino
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
California has one of the lowest voter registration rates in
the nation, and youth aged 18-24 years old stand out as the
group that is registering at a far lower rate than any other
age group.
Even in the presidential election year of 2012, while nearly
80% of Californians were registered to vote, only 62% of
18-to-24-year-olds were registered. Studies have shown that
the earlier people are introduced to voting, the more likely
they are to become life-long participants in democracy.
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SB 113 would not change the voting age, which is 18. But it
would allow youth to pre-register to vote either online, by
mail, or at the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles], beginning
at age 16. Assuming they meet all eligibility requirements,
once they turn 18, their registration would become active?
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-21, 8/25/14
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,
Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal,
Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams,
Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Chávez, Conway, Dahle,
Donnelly, Beth
Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Jones, Logue, Maienschein,
Mansoor, Melendez, Olsen, Patterson, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gorell, Linder, Nestande, John A. Pérez,
Vacancy
RM:k 8/26/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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