BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Norma J. Torres, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1063 HEARING DATE: 4/22/14
AUTHOR: BLOCK ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 3/28/14
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voter registration: juvenile detention facilities
DESCRIPTION
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 also:
Requires the election board of each county, in order to
promote and encourage voter registration, to establish a
sufficient number of registration places throughout the
county, and outside the county courthouse, for the
convenience of person desiring to register to vote.
Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to adopt regulations
requiring each county to design and implement programs to
identify qualified individuals who are not registered voters
and to register those individuals to vote.
Requires the county elections official to cancel the voter
registration of a person upon proof that the person is
presently imprisoned or on parole for conviction of a felony.
Requires the clerk of the superior court of each county to
notify the county elections official twice a year of those
persons that have been convicted of a felony since the
clerk's last report.
Requires the facility administrator of a local detention
facility to develop written policies and procedures whereby
the county registrar of voters allows qualified voters to
vote in local, state, and federal elections.
This bill requires a state or local juvenile detention facility,
including, but not limited to, a juvenile hall, juvenile ranch,
juvenile camp, or a facility of the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice to do all of
the following:
Identify each individual housed in the facility who is of
age to register to vote.
Assist each individual in determining if he or she is
entitled to register to vote, within the meaning of Section
2101.
Provide a voter registration card to each individual housed
in the facility who is entitled to register to vote but is
not currently registered to vote.
Accept any completed voter registration cards and transmit
the cards to the county elections official in a manner as
follows: 1) within 10 days of receipt from an individual
housed in the facility; 2) within five days of receipt from
an individual housed in the facility, if the voter
registration card was received within five days before the
last day for registration to vote in an election.
This bill also encourages a state or local juvenile detention
facility to work with the SOS to achieve compliance with the
requirements set forth in the federal National Voter
Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973gg et seq.)
when providing voter registration services.
BACKGROUND
The National Voter Registration Act's primary objectives are:
o To establish procedures that will increase the number of
eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for
Federal office;
o To protect the integrity of the electoral process by
ensuring that accurate and current voter registration rolls
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are maintained; and
o To enhance the participation of eligible citizens as
voters in elections for Federal office [42 U.S.C. §1973gg].
According to statistics from the SOS's website, currently there
are over 6.3 million eligible voters in the state that remain
unregistered to vote. Consequently, efforts to encourage and
improve voter registration have been a focus of varying
legislative proposals over past legislative sessions.
COMMENTS
1. According to the Author : SB 1063 will direct juvenile
detention centers to identify incarcerated youth who are of
age to register to vote, provide them with voter
registration information, assist with the completion of
registration cards, and accept completed voter registration
cards.
Juvenile detention and correction facilities in California
housed 11,532 individuals under the age of 21 in 2010. The
United States locks up more juveniles than any other
industrialized country and California ranks among the top
twelve states for rates of juvenile incarceration.
Additionally, California has a voter turn-out problem that
ranks it 48th among the states in voting participation.
Currently, nearly one quarter of California's eligible
voters are not registered.
The use of governmental agencies to register citizens to vote
is not unprecedented. Section 7 of the National Voter
Registration Act (NVRA) requires public assistance agencies,
particularly those that serve low-income or disabled
populations, to provide voter registration materials. NVRA
voter registration agencies include county welfare
department offices, which accept applications and administer
benefits for CalFresh, CalWorks, Medi-Cal, and other state
programs. Yet, none of these programs or agencies has the
ability to target voter registration to youth specifically.
2. Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice. In their Report, "A
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New Era in California Juvenile Justice: Downsizing the State
Youth Corrections System," the Berkeley Center for Criminal
Justice provides that, "The process of sending youth to
California Youth Authority (CYA) begins at the county level,
with prosecutors, public defenders, probation officer,
juvenile court judges and others who play a role in
determining if a youth will be placed out of home and, if
so, where and for how long. There are several options for
processing arrested youth. After arrest, youth can be
referred to probation or counseled and released. Once
referred, probation officers can close the case, place youth
on probation, divert youth away from the system, or file a
petition in juvenile court. Judges determine whether the
youth is deemed delinquent and make final sentencing
decisions, including maximum confinement time based on
recommendations by probation officers, the district
attorney, and the defense attorney. Rehabilitation is meant
to be a top priority.
3. Amendments : The author is planning to amend the bill to
remove the requirement that a juvenile detention facility
assist in "determining if an individual is entitled to
register," and instead provide that the facility assist each
individual with the completion of a voter registration card,
unless the individual declines assistance .
4. Similar Legislation : AB 149 (Weber), Ch. 580, Statutes of
2013 requires county probation departments to either
establish a hyperlink on its Internet Web site to the SOS's
voting rights guide for incarcerated persons, or to post a
notice that contains the SOS Internet Web site address where
the voting rights guide can be found.
AB 821 (Ridley-Thomas) of 2005 would have required county
elections officials to provide affidavits of registration
and copies of the "Guide to Inmate Voting" to state and
local detention facilities so that those detention
facilities could notify specified individuals of their right
to vote. AB 821 failed passage in this Committee.
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: American Civil Liberties Union of California (ACLU)
A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and
Healing)
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)
National Association of Social Workers, California
Chapter
Southwest Voter Registration & Education Project
(SVREP)
Oppose: Chief Probation Officers of California
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