BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 786
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Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair
AB 786
(Levine) - As Introduced February 25, 2015
SUBJECT: National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
SUMMARY: Makes changes to current law to ensure compliance with
the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, as
specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in
coordination with the Secretary of State (SOS), to the extent
the State's Plan for implementation of the federal NVRA is
inconsistent with the NVRA, to take additional steps to fully
implement and further comply with Section 20504 of Title 52 of
the United States Code.
2)Prohibits a county elections official, upon notification by
the DMV that a voter registered to vote in the county has
moved to a different county, from canceling that voter's prior
registration until the voter is registered in the county to
which he or she has moved, except at the voter's request.
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Requires each state to offer voter registration services at
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.
2)Requires the DMV to provide the opportunity to register to
vote to individuals who apply for, renew, or change an address
for a driver's license or personal identification card issued
by the DMV.
3)Requires a driver's license or identification application to
be used as an application for voter registration, unless the
applicant fails to sign the application.
4)Requires change of address information received by the DMV to
be used for the purpose of updating voter registration
records, unless the registrant chooses otherwise.
5)Provides a person may not be registered to vote except by
affidavit of registration.
6)Provides that a properly executed affidavit of registration is
deemed to be effective upon receipt of the affidavit by the
county elections official if received on or before the 15th
day before election day, postmarked on or before the 15th day
prior to the election and received by mail by the county
elections officials, or submitted to the DMV or accepted by
any other public agency designated as a voter registration
agency on or before the 15th day prior to the election.
7)Permits a county elections official to cancel the prior
registration of a voter who has moved to a different county
after it attempts to confirm the voter's change of address, as
specified. Permits the cancellation if the change-of-address
notice comes from the DMV or another designated agency, and if
the voter initiates the request or verifies, in writing, that
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he or she has moved to a different county.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:
In 1993, Congress signed into law a measure intended to
make it easy for Americans to register to vote when they
apply for a driver's license. More than two decades later,
California has yet to comply with that law. It is
unacceptable for the DMV to ignore federal law. We need to
make it easy for Californians to register to vote.
AB 786 will require the DMV to finally begin complying with
the 22 year old federal "Motor Voter" law by allowing
eligible voters to utilize the driver's license and
California ID card application or renewal form as a voter
registration form as well.
AB 786 creates an opt-in approach to registering voters at
the DMV. The opt-in approach of AB 786 assures that
voters are offered the opportunity to sign a statement
under penalty of perjury that they are eligible to vote and
the opportunity to designate a party affiliation.
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This bill also addresses recent reports indicating that
voters are being removed from the rolls against their will
when they move from one county to another. These voters
rely on DMV to process their voter registration change of
address. However, DMV and the county elections offices
fail to process the change of address in a timely manner.
This bill simply provides that in such cases, the voter
cannot be removed from one county until they are added onto
the other county.
2)National Voter Registration Act: On May 20, 1993, President
Bill Clinton signed into law the NVRA, which had an effective
date of January 1, 1995. Also known as the "Motor Voter
Act," the enactment of the NVRA was intended to enhance and
increase voting opportunities for eligible voters to register
to vote and maintain their registration. In addition to other
methods of voter registration, the NVRA requires states to
provide the opportunity to apply to register to vote for
federal elections through various methods. Section 5 of the
NVRA requires states to offer voter registration opportunities
at motor vehicle agencies. Section 6 of the NVRA requires
states to provide voter registration opportunities by mail-in
application. Finally, Section 7 of the NVRA requires states
to offer voter registration opportunities at all offices that
provide public assistance or state-funded programs primarily
engaged in providing services to persons with disabilities.
Armed Forces recruitment offices must also provide voter
registration services. Section 7 of the NVRA also requires a
state to designate "other offices" within the state as voter
registration agencies. In addition to expanding opportunities
to register to vote, the NVRA imposes requirements on states
to protect the integrity of the electoral process and ensure
that accurate and current voter registration rolls are
maintained.
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On August 12, 1994, the Governor Pete Wilson signed Executive
Order W-98-94 directing state and local agencies to implement
the NVRA only to the extent that federal funding was provided.
3)How Does The Current Process Work? According to the SOS's
2011 NVRA Manual, every person who visits a DMV office to
apply for or renew a driver's license or identification card
or to change an address receives a voter registration card
(VRC). Every person who receives a driver's license or
identification renewal form by mail also receives a VRC. The
VRC can be used to register to vote or to re-register after a
change in name, address, or party preference. When voters
update their address with a DMV office, the new address is
sent electronically to the SOS's statewide voter registration
database, which then shares the information with county
elections officials who update voter registration records.
When voters move to a new county, the DMV instructs them to
complete a new VRC. The DMV accepts completed VRCs and
forwards them to the SOS or the county where the voter lives.
The NVRA clearly prohibits an individual who wants to register
to vote from being required to provide any information that
duplicates information already required on the driver's
license form, except for other information that is necessary
to determine an individual's eligibility to registration to
vote. Similarly, federal law requires a DMV change of address
form to serve as a notification of a change of address for
voter registration, unless the individual states otherwise.
However, according the representatives from the DMV and the
SOS, the current process is a two-step process. For instance,
a person applying for a driver's license must fill out an
additional VRC to register to vote. Furthermore, a person
that moves to a new county is required to fill out a separate
VRC to change the address at which he or she is registered to
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vote.
4)Implementing NVRA History: When the NVRA took effect in 1995,
several states failed to take the steps necessary to comply
with the law and several also challenged the constitutionality
of the federal mandate. States involved in the first round of
cases included California, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi,
Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.
Three separate lawsuits concerning California's implementation
of the NVRA were filed in federal court: Voting Rights
Coalition v. Pete Wilson, Pete Wilson v. United States of
America, and United States of America v. Pete Wilson. All
three cases were combined into a single proceeding and were
heard before a federal district court in San Jose on March 2,
1995. The court found the NVRA constitutional, despite the
lack of federal funding provided to states, and the court
ruled that California was obligated to implement the NVRA.
The court ordered the state to submit an implementation plan
to the court for review to ensure conformity of the
requirements of the NVRA.
The plan submitted by the state would have brought California
into compliance with the requirements of the NVRA, however,
there was one notable exception with respect to the method by
which a person may register to vote at the DMV.
As mentioned above, the NVRA explicitly requires a driver's
license or identification application to be used as an
application for voter registration, unless the applicant fails
to sign the application. Additionally, NVRA provides that the
voter registration portion of a driver's license application
may not require any information that duplicates information
required in the driver's license portion of the form, other
than a second signature or other information that is necessary
to determine an individual's eligibility to register to vote.
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Despite the NVRA's clear requirements, the state's
court-approved implementation plan instead called for a
two-page application - one page for the driver's license
application and one page for the voter registration form.
Prior bill analyses suggest the rationale for this two-page plan
was due to cost, as the NVRA did not provide states with any
direct funding or any mechanism for reimbursement of the costs
associated with its implementation. The cost to create a
single, computer generated form to serve as both a driver's
license and voter registration application would have been
significant.
5)Is This Bill Necessary? According to the SOS's 2011 NVRA
Manual, the NVRA did not require the adoption of state law to
give it effect, thus California did not adopt implementing
statues or regulations under the NVRA. Furthermore, once the
federal court reviewed and approved the plan for conformity
with the requirements of the NVRA, it was confirmed that the
issue of Motor Voter had been decided by the federal court and
thus was moot.
However, as mentioned above, while California's NVRA
Implementation Plan was approved by a federal court, a strict
reading of the NVRA would suggest that the state does not
fully comply with the NVRA. This bill has the potential to
highlight this matter and finally bring California into full
compliance with Motor Voter.
In fact, earlier this year a letter was sent to the SOS from
ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties, Dmos,
Morrison & Forester LLP, and Project Vote stating that
California is engaging in continuous and ongoing violations of
Section 5 of the NVRA. The letter also stated that it
constituted a fo6)rmal notice of their intent to initiate
litigation at the end of the statutory 90-day waiting period
should California fail to remedy the violations of Section 5
of the NVRA, as specified.
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7)Change of Address: The NVRA permits a county elections
official to cancel the prior registration of a voter who has
moved to a different county after it attempts to confirm the
voter's change of address, as specified. In addition,
existing law permits cancellation if the change-of-address
notice comes from the DMV or another designated agency or if
the voter initiates the request. Moreover, state law permits
a county elections official to cancel the prior voter
registration of a voter who verifies in writing that he or she
has moved to a different county.
According to the SOS's NVRA Handbook, the DMV collects and
transmits electronic change-of-address data to elections
officials on a daily basis, which allows for automatic
change-of-address updates for many voters. The elections
official, however, may not automatically update the addresses
of voters who move from one county to another because current
law requires voters who move to a new county to re-register to
vote by completing and signing a new VRC. This bill prohibits
a county elections official, upon notification by the DMV that
a voter registered to vote in the county has moved to a
different county, from canceling that voter's prior
registration until the voter is registered in the county to
which he or she has moved, except at the voter's request.
According to the author's background information, in many
cases, when a voter moves from one county to another, the DMV
and the counties do not share information or coordinate.
Consequently, the voter may be removed from the rolls of the
county that the voter left, but is not yet added to the rolls
of the county to which the voter is moving. This means that
the voter is not registered to vote anywhere in California
even though the voter intends to vote and believed that by
making the change of address at the DMV, this change would
automatically update the voter registration as well.
In practice, this bill allows an individual to be registered in
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two counties until the new county where the voter has
re-registered contacts the previous county of registration.
However, according to the SOS's office, VoteCal, the federally
required statewide voter database, should resolve this process
because under VoteCal a voter will have a single voter file
that will follow them when they move, between and within
counties. When a voter moves from one county to another, the
voter record will be maintained at the original address (in
the originating county) until the record is updated. If there
is a match between a change of address transaction and an
existing voter record, VoteCal will automatically update the
existing voter registration record with the new data. VoteCal
is currently scheduled to be fully operational in June 2016.
8)Related Legislation: AB 1461 (Gonzalez), which is pending in
the Assembly Transportation Committee, would require the SOS
to use records from the DMV to automatically register to vote
those individuals who are eligible, as specified.
9)Previous Legislation: AB 1122 (Levine) of 2013, which was
substantially similar to this bill, was held on the Assembly
Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
SB 35 (Padilla), Chapter 505, Statutes of 2012, 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.
10)Double-Referral: This bill has been doubled referred to the
Assembly Transportation Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
AB 786
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Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094