BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 113| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 CONTINUED SB 113 Page 2 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 CONTINUED SB 113 Page 3 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 CONTINUED SB 113 Page 4 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 CONTINUED SB 113 Page 5 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. CONTINUED SB 113 Page 6 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 **** END **** CONTINUED