BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: SB 361 HEARING DATE: 04/30/13
AUTHOR: PADILLA ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 04/08/13
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Elections: voter registration
DESCRIPTION
Existing law specifies various duties of the Secretary of
State (SOS).
Existing law specifies that in order to be eligible to
vote, an individual must be a United States citizen, a
resident of California, not in prison or on parole for the
conviction of a felony, not deemed mentally incompetent,
and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next
election.
Existing law , pursuant to the National Voter Registration
Act of 1993 (NVRA), requires each state to designate
agencies for registration of voters in elections for
federal office including 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.
This bill would allow the SOS, for the purpose of
maintaining accurate voter registration records, to enter
into agreements with other states to share information or
data pertaining to voters who have permanently moved to
other states.
This bill requires a California voter registration agency,
to provide the SOS with information or data pertaining to
the applicant's address for the purpose of maintaining
accurate voter registration records.
This bill requires the SOS to provide on his or her
Internet Web site all of the following:
The capability for a vote by mail (VBM) voter to check
the status of the voter's VBM ballot to discover whether
the ballot was counted and, if not, the reason why it
was not counted.
The capability for a voter to find the location of his
or her polling place.
The capability for a voter to check the status of the
voter's registration.
This bill provides that implementation will be contingent
upon the SOS certifying that the state has a statewide
voter registration database that complies with the
requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002
(42 U.S.C. Sec. 15301 et seq.).
BACKGROUND
In addition to allowing an individual to register to vote
online, the SOS Web site also provides individuals with a
hyperlink to a page of alphabetically listed counties with
either a phone number, county hyperlink or both that would
allow them to check their voter registration status.
Currently, most California counties also provide additional
links on their Web sites for individuals to check their
voter registration status, lookup their polling place,
download their sample ballot or check the status of their
VBM ballot.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Complete and accurate voter
registration records are essential to the integrity of
the electoral process and the legitimacy of results.
Voter records are used to assign precincts, send sample
ballots, provide polling place information, identify and
verify voters at polling places, and determine how
resources, such as paper ballots and voting machines,
SB 361 (PADILLA)
Page 2
are deployed on Election Day.
For decades California has been a leader in protecting the
right to vote. However, we have fallen behind other
states in terms of innovative election reforms that
expand voter participation in elections. Millions of
Californians do not vote and hundreds of thousands that
do vote experience problems. In 2010, California had
23.5 million eligible voters, of those:
17.2 million were registered to vote
10.5 million voted
6 million were eligible to vote but not registered
5 million were registered but didn't vote
1.6 million reported voter registration problems
200,000 were unable to vote because of registration
problems
546,000 voted provisionally because of registration
problems
258,000 had parts or all of their provisional or absentee
ballot rejected
California has more people that do not vote than the total
number of voters in Texas and New York combined. The
total number of provisional and absentee ballots
rejected in California is greater than the total number
of voters in Vermont or Wyoming.
2. Election Performance Index . The Pew Center on the
States released in February 2013, the "Election
Performance Index" which measures 17 indicators of
effective election administration. California ranks
48th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia,
just above Alabama and Mississippi. The indicators
include the adoption of voting technology, the accuracy
of voter rolls, reported problems with registration and
absentee ballots, the voter registration rate and
election turnout.
Specifically, the report noted that in 2010, because of
various problems with voter registration and access to
election information California had:
SB 361 (PADILLA)
Page 3
* The highest rate of provisional ballots cast.
* A high rate of provisional ballots rejected.
* The highest rate of absentee ballots rejected.
* A high rate of nonvoting.
3. VoteCal Update : CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc.
(CGI) has been selected to develop California's new
statewide voter registration database, known as VoteCal.
The Department of General Services approved the
contract on March 6, 2013, and work on the project is
now underway.
June 30, 2016 is the approved and published roll-out date
for the HAVA compliant VoteCal statewide voter
registration database.
4. Related legislation : SB 35 (Padilla), Ch. 505 Statutes
of 2012 among other things, added the California Health
Benefit Exchange to the list of public assistance
agencies required by the NVRA to provide voter
registration opportunities and codified various other
provisions of the NVRA.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: CALPIRG
Common Cause
National Association of Latino Elected and
Appointed Officials
PowerPAC.org
Rock the Vote
SEIU, California State Council
Oppose: None received
SB 361 (PADILLA)
Page 4