California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1458

Introduced by Assembly Member Obernolte

February 27, 2015

An act to amend Section 2227 of the Elections Code, relating to elections.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1458, as introduced, Obernolte. Voters: residency confirmation.

Existing law requires a county elections official to conduct a preelection residency confirmation procedure and authorizes a county elections official to contract with a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees to obtain use of change-of-address data in lieu of mailing a residency confirmation postcard pursuant to the preelection residency confirmation procedure. Provisions of existing law require the county elections official to send a forwardable notice, as specified, to a registered voter to enable the voter to verify or correct address information, and provide for the county elections official to take appropriate actions based on the voter’s response, as specified.

This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to those provisions.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 2227 of the Elections Code is amended
to read:

2227.  

(a) In lieu of mailing a residency confirmation postcard,
as prescribed in subdivision (a) of Section 2220, the county
elections official may contract with a consumer credit reporting
agency or its licensees to obtain use of change-of-address data in
accordance with this section.

(b) If the county elections official contracts with a consumer
credit reporting agency or its licensees pursuant to subdivision (a),
all of the following shall occur:

(1) For each registered voter in the county, the county elections
official shall initiate a search for change-of-address data with the
consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees by providing the
name and residence address of each registered voter in the county
to the consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees.

(2) The consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees shall
search their databases for each name and address provided by the
county elections official and shall report to the county elections
official any information indicating that the registered voter changed
his or her residence address.

(c) (1) Notwithstanding Section 2194 of this code or Section
6254.4 of the Government Code, and except as provided in
paragraph (2), a county elections official may disclose a registered
voter’s name and residence address to a consumer credit reporting
agency or its licensees pursuant to, and in accordance with, this
section.

(2) A county elections official shall not disclose to a consumer
credit reporting agency or its licensees the name and residence
address of a registered voter if that information is deemed
confidential pursuant to Section 2166, 2166.5, or 2166.7 of this
code, or Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 6205) of Division
7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.

(d) A consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees shall
use the information provided by a county elections official only
pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b), and shall not retain
any information received from the county elections official
pursuant to this section.

(e) Based on change-of-address data received from a consumer
credit reporting agency or its licensees, the county elections official
shall send a forwardable notice, including a postage-paid and
preaddressed return form, which may be in the form of a postcard,
to the registered voter to enable the voter to verify or correct
address information. The forwardable notice shall be in
substantially the following form:

“We have received notification that you have moved to a new
residence address in ____ County. You will remain registered to
vote at your old address unless you notify our office that the
address to which this card was mailed is a change of your
permanent residence. Please notify our office in writing by
returning the attached postage-paid postcard. If this is not a
permanent residence, and you do not wish to change your address
for voting purposes, please disregard this notice.”

(f) The county elections official shall take all of the following
actions as appropriate:

(1) If a voter responds to the forwardable notice sent pursuant
to subdivision (e) or otherwise verifies in a signed writing that he
or she has moved to a new residence address within the same
county, the county elections official shall verify the signature on
the response by comparing it to the signature on file for the voter
and, if appropriate, correct the voter’s registration with the new
residence address.

(2) If a voter responds to the forwardable notice sent pursuant
to subdivision (e) or otherwise verifies in a signed writing that he
or she has moved to a new residence address in another county,
the county elections official shall verify the signature on the
response by comparing it to the signature on file for the voter and,
if appropriate, cancel the voter’s registration in the county from
which the voter has moved.

(3) If a voter does not respond to the forwardable notice sent
pursuant to subdivision (e) and does not otherwise verify in a
signed writing that he or she has moved to a new residence address,
the elections official shall not place the voter’s name on the inactive
file of registered voters or cancel the begin delete voter end delete begin insert voter’s end insert registration.

(g) For purposes of this section, “consumer credit reporting
agency” has the same meaning as set forth in subdivision (d) of
Section 1785.3 of the Civil Code.