BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1063
Author: Block (D)
Amended: 5/12/14
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMM .: 4-1, 4/22/14
AYES: Torres, Hancock, Jackson, Padilla
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 5/23/14
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Gaines
SUBJECT : Voter registration: juvenile detention facilities
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill directs local juvenile detention facilities
to identify detained youth who are of age to register to vote,
provide them with a paper affidavit of registration, or direct
the individual to an affidavit provided on the Secretary of
State's (SOS) Internet Web site, assist with its completion, and
transmit those affidavits completed on paper to elections
officials.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Specifies that in order to be eligible to vote, an individual
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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.
2.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.
3.Requires the 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.
4.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.
5.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.
6.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 (CDCR), Division of Juvenile Justice to do
all of the following:
1.Identify each individual housed in the facility who is of age
to register to vote.
2.Assist each of those individuals with the completion of the
affidavit of registration, unless the individual declines
assistance.
3.Provide an affidavit of registration to each individual housed
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in the facility who is of age to register to vote by either
providing the individual with a paper affidavit of
registration, or directing the individual to an affidavit of
registration provided on the Internet Web site of the SOS.
4.Accept any completed paper affidavits and transmit them to the
county elections official within 10 days or within five days
if the card was received within five days before the last day
for registration to vote in an election. As an alternate, the
facility may assist the individual who completed the voter
registration card in returning the completed card to the
county elections official.
Background
The National Voters Registration Act's (NVRA) primary objectives
are:
To establish procedures that will increase the number of
eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for
federal office;
To protect the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring
that accurate and current voter registration rolls are
maintained; and
To enhance the participation of eligible citizens as voters in
elections for Federal office.
According to statistics from the SOS' Internet Web site,
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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Unknown, potentially significant reimbursable mandate costs to
local detention facilities (General Fund).
Minor costs to CDCR (General Fund).
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SUPPORT : (Verified 5/23/14)
A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing)
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay
Area
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/23/14)
Chief Probation Officers of California
Department of Finance
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
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 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.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Chief Probation Officers of
California express "great concerns regarding the additional
responsibilities this [bill] imposes on probation departments
and the potential implementation issues this measure creates.
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"While we always endeavor to assist our youth with services
needed to be productive citizens, we must also be mindful of the
myriad of critical responsibilities we have for the youth in our
care. Mandating additional duties, such as those set forth in
this measure, must be considered against the backdrop of our
existing statutory duties that ensure the safety, health, and
well-being of the youth in our care, maximize their successful
reintegration to society, and lead to positive public safety
outcomes.
"Further mandating probation to assume responsibility for voting
activities exposes departments to a new and unclear set of
implementation issues. It is unclear how probation would be
impacted should an individual be mis-identified, a completed
registration card gets lost in transit, or an identified
individual received a card but fails to vote."
RM:e 5/27/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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