BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1461
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair
AB 1461
(Gonzalez, Alejo, and McCarty) - As Amended April 20, 2015
SUBJECT: Voter registration.
SUMMARY: Provides for every person who has a driver's license
or state identification card and who is eligible to register to
vote to be automatically registered to vote, unless that person
opts out, as specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Secretary of State (SOS), in consultation with
the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), to establish a
schedule for the DMV to electronically provide to the SOS the
records of a person who is issued an original or renewal
driver's license or state identification card, as specified.
a) Requires the DMV to electronically provide the records
to the SOS of a person who is issued an original or renewal
of a driver's license or state identification card if the
proof that the applicant is required to submit to prove
that his or her presence in the United States is authorized
under federal law also establishes that the applicant is a
citizen of the United States.
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b) Requires the records to include the person's name, age,
residence address, and electronic signature.
c) Prohibits the DMV from electronically providing the
records of a person who is issued a driver's license
pursuant to specified provisions of law because that person
is unable to establish satisfactory proof that his or her
presence in the United States is authorized under federal
law.
2)Requires the SOS, upon receipt of the records from the DMV, to
provide the records to the county elections official of the
county in which the person may be registered to vote, unless
the SOS determines that the person is not eligible to register
to vote or is already registered to vote.
3)Requires the SOS to notify each person whose records are sent
to a county elections official of the following:
a) That the person will be registered to vote unless he or
she declines to be registered within 21 days after the date
the SOS issues the notification;
b) The method by which the person may decline to be
registered to vote; and,
c) The method by which the person may include his or her
political party preference on his or her voter
registration.
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4)Provides that if a person notified as detailed above does not
decline to be registered to vote within 21 days after the date
that the SOS issues the notification, that person's records
shall constitute a completed affidavit of registration and the
person shall be registered to vote.
5)Provides that this bill shall not affect the confidentiality
of a person's voter registration information, including for
any of the following individuals:
a) Individuals who are enrolled in the Address
Confidentiality for Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual
Assault, and Stalking program, as specified;
b) Individuals who are enrolled in the Address
Confidentiality for Reproductive Health Care Service
Providers, Employees, Volunteers, and Patients program, as
specified;
c) Public safety officers who have had their residence
addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses made
confidential pursuant to specified provisions of law; and,
d) Individuals with life-threatening circumstances who have
been granted confidentiality of their voter registration
information by a court under specified provisions of law.
6)Requires the SOS to adopt regulations to implement this bill.
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7)Provides that this bill may be known as the California New
Motor Voter Program.
8)Contains various findings and declarations.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires, pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act
(NVRA) of 1993, 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 that a person entitled to register to vote shall be a
United States citizen, a resident of California, not in prison
or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18
years of age at the time of the next election.
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6)Requires a county elections official to cancel the
registration of any person if the mental incompetency of that
person is legally established, as provided.
7)Provides a person may not be registered to vote except by
affidavit of registration.
8)Permits a registered voter to cancel his or her voter
registration at any time by submitting a signed, written
request to the county elections official.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:
Congress enacted the federal National Voter
Registration Act of 1993, commonly known as the "Motor
Voter Law," to increase the number of eligible
citizens who register to vote. However, more than 20
years after the passage of the Act, voter registration
still stands as one of the biggest barriers to
participation in our nation's democracy.
In fact, California ranked 38th among the 50 states in
voter registration in 2014 with nearly 7 million
Californians eligible to vote but not yet registered.
Moreover, voter turnout nationwide was the lowest
since World War II in 2014, with California ranking
43rd in voter participation.
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Additionally, the federal Motor Voter Law is based
largely on a paper process and does not fully utilize
modern electronic data technologies to make voter
registration easier, more convenient and more
efficient.
AB 1461 will enact the California New Motor Voter Act
to make voter registration easier when citizens get or
renew a driver's license, thereby increasing
opportunities for eligible citizens to participate in
democracy by voting.
2)National Voter Registration Act: In 1993, the federal
government enacted the NVRA, commonly referred to as the
"motor voter" law, to make it easier for Americans to register
to vote and to remain registered to vote. Among other
provisions, the NVRA requires states to provide individuals
with the opportunity to register to vote at the same time that
they apply for or renew a driver's license, requires states to
offer voter registration opportunities at all offices that
provide public assistance, guarantees that citizens can
register to vote by mail using uniform federal registration
forms, and establishes procedures for how states maintain
voter registration lists for federal elections.
One of the provisions of the NVRA prohibits the voter
registration portion of a driver's license application from
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requiring any information that duplicates information required
in the driver's license portion of the form, other than a
second signature or a statement attesting to the person's
eligibility to register to vote.
The California DMV, however, does not currently comply with
NVRA's prohibition on requiring duplicate information. Rather,
a separate voter registration form is attached to the driver's
license form which requires the affiant to fill in duplicate
information. This dual form policy was the result of a
settlement in a lawsuit to force the State of California to
comply with NVRA when former Government Pete Wilson refused to
implement it unless federal funding was provided (NVRA did not
provide the states with any direct funding or any mechanism
for reimbursement of costs associated with implementation).
Earlier this year, a letter was sent to the SOS from the 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 the NVRA due
to the states dual form policy. The letter also stated that it
constituted a formal notice of the senders intent to initiate
litigation at the end of the statutory 90-day waiting per3)iod
should California fail to remedy the violations of the NVRA,
as specified.
4)California Registration Statistics: According to the most
recent report of registration produced by the SOS, there are
17,717,936 registered voters in California out of an estimated
24,362,774 Californians who are eligible to register to vote,
meaning that approximately 72.7 percent of eligible
Californians are registered to vote.
Over the last 50 years, the percentage of eligible Californians
who were registered to vote has been as high as 80.2 percent
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(in 1996) and as low as 66.3 percent (in 1979).
5)Oregon's Automatic Voter Registration: No state currently
takes the responsibility for proactively registering eligible
individuals to vote-instead, almost every state puts the
impetus on individuals to register themselves to vote (North
Dakota, which is the only state without voter registration, is
the exception). The idea of making the government responsible
for proactively registering voters when the government has
information to verify individuals' eligibility to
vote-sometimes referred to as "automatic voter
registration"-received renewed attention earlier this year
when the Oregon Legislature passed and the Governor signed
House Bill 2177, which will require Oregon elections officials
to automatically register people to vote if the state
Department of Transportation has information indicating that
those people are eligible to register to vote. Individuals
will have the option to opt-out of being registered.
However, Oregon's automatic voter registration bill was signed
into law only last month, and the bill lacks many details on
how automatic voter registration will work, instead allowing
those details to be determined by regulation or rule. The
bill did require, however, that the Oregon Secretary of State
and the Department of Transportation must implement various
aspects of the bill by January 1, 2016.
6)VoteCal and Possible Amendment: On October 29, 2002,
President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act
(HAVA) of 2002 (116 STAT. 1666, Public Law 107-252). Enacted
partially in response to the 2000 Presidential election, HAVA
was designed to improve the administration of federal
elections. Among other provisions, HAVA requires every state
to implement a single, uniform, official, centralized,
interactive computerized statewide voter registration list
defined, maintained, and administered at the state level. This
statewide voter registration list will serve as the official
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list of eligible voters for any federal election held within
the state.
At the time HAVA was approved, California was already using a
statewide voter registration system, known as Calvoter, which
achieved some of the goals of the voter registration list
required by HAVA. However, Calvoter did not satisfy many of
the requirements in that law, including requirements that the
database be fully interactive and have the capability of
storing a complete voter registration history for every voter.
Discussions between the United States Department of Justice
(Justice Department) and the SOS led to the adoption of a
memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the two parties. In that
MOA, the SOS committed to further upgrades to the Calvoter
system to achieve short term interim compliance with the
requirements of HAVA, and to complete development and
implementation of a longer term solution for replacing the
Calvoter system with a new permanent statewide voter
registration system. That new permanent system is commonly
known as VoteCal.
After a number of delays, the VoteCal system is being developed
and is currently in testing. The system is scheduled to be
rolled out to five counties this July as a pilot, and if
VoteCal is operating as anticipated, it will then be deployed
to the remaining 53 counties in six waves between October 2015
and March 2016. After the final wave is completed, the SOS
will certify VoteCal as the system of record for voter
registration information in California. The current project
schedule provides for that certification to occur by June
2016.
The implementation of VoteCal will help streamline the voter
registration process, including allowing voters to update
their voter registration records seamlessly when they update
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their address with the DMV or with the state's Employment
Development Department. VoteCal will also make it easier and
more efficient for elections officials to do "list
maintenance," including identifying and eliminating duplicate
registrations, transferring a voter's record from one county
to another when the voter moves, and canceling the
registrations of individuals who are no longer eligible to
vote.
Given the significant changes to the state's voter registration
processes and infrastructure as a result of VoteCal, and given
the critical nature of completing that project in a timely
manner, it may be prudent for any attempt to automatically
register voters based on information held by the DMV to occur
only when VoteCal is operational. SOS staff has indicated
that they do not intend for automatic voter registration to
begin until after VoteCal is operational. In light of that
fact, and to ensure that appropriate systems are in place
before automatic voter registration begins, the committee may
wish to amend this bill to make its implementation conditional
on certification by the SOS that VoteCal is operational.
7)Determination of Eligibility to Register: Under California
law, a person is eligible to register to vote if he or she is
a United States citizen, a resident of California, not in
prison or on parole for conviction of a felony, and will be at
least 18 years old at the time of the next election.
Additionally, as detailed above, existing law requires a
county elections official to cancel the registration of any
person if the mental incompetency of that person has been
legally established, as specified.
Under this bill, the DMV would be required to provide the SOS
with specified personal information about individuals who have
a driver's license or identification card and who submitted
documentation to the DMV that establishes that they are
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citizens.
Since 1994, every applicant in California for a state
identification card or driver's license has been required to
provide verification of birth date and proof of legal presence
in the United States. (As detailed below, beginning this
year, individuals who are unable to submit satisfactory proof
of legal presence in the United States are now eligible to
apply for and receive driver's licenses. Those driver's
licenses-commonly referred to as "AB 60 licenses" after the
bill that authorized their issuance, are distinguishable from
non-AB 60 licenses. Individuals who wish to receive a non-AB
60 license are still required to provide proof of legal
presence in the United States.) In order for a person to
prove legal presence, an applicant is required to provide the
original or a certified copy of one of 28 different documents
to the DMV. Of those 28 documents, some (such as a United
States passport) are documents that are available only to
citizens, while others (such as a permanent resident card)
would be issued only to individuals who were not citizens.
Other acceptable documents (such as a United States military
identification card) could be issued to citizens or
non-citizens. According to the DMV and the State
Transportation Agency, DMV records contain information about
the document that individuals used to establish legal presence
in the country. (For individuals who were originally issued a
driver's license or identification card prior to 1994, the DMV
does not have such information, since a person was not
required to prove his or her legal presence in the country.)
Under this bill, the DMV would forward the personal information
to the SOS of individuals who have a driver's license or
identification card and who used a document to establish legal
presence in the country that also establishes that the person
is a citizen. Once that information was received from the
DMV, the SOS would need to make a determination about which of
those individuals are (1) eligible to register to vote, and
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(2) not already registered to vote. In order to determine
which individuals were already registered to vote, the SOS
would need to check the list received from the DMV against the
statewide voter registration database. In order to establish
a person's eligibility to vote, the SOS would need to limit
the information received from the DMV to those individuals who
were at least 18 years old, and then would need to check that
list of names against records that the SOS receives (including
court records and death records) to exclude those individuals
who are not eligible to register to vote.
Because the procedure established by this bill is limited to
people for whom the DMV has evidence that they are citizens,
many individuals who are eligible to vote will not be
registered to vote under this bill, even if those individuals
have driver's licenses or state identification cards. For
example, the DMV does not know whether a licensee is a citizen
or not if that licensee used a United States military
identification card to prove his or her legal presence in the
country. Similarly the DMV will not necessarily have
information to confirm the citizenship of individuals who were
originally issued licenses or identification cards prior to
1994, or for individuals who became citizens after being
issued a driver's license or identification card. As a
result, the number of voters who are registered to vote under
this bill likely will be considerably less than the number of
Californians who are eligible to vote, but who are not
currently registered to vote.
8)Effect on Other Election Policies: Various provisions of the
state's elections laws are dependent on the numbers and
percentages of registered voters. Because this bill has the
potential to substantially increase the number of registered
voters in California, many of those provisions may need to be
reevaluated and adjusted to reflect the increase in registered
voters that is likely to occur with this bill.
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For example, existing law limits each precinct to a maximum of
1,000 voters as of the 88th day before the election. Unless
that figure is adjusted, elections officials could be required
to create thousands of new precincts around the state to
reflect the increase in voter registration that could occur
with this bill.
Similarly, one test that a political party may meet under
existing law in order to be qualified to participate in
elections is having at least 0.33 percent of the state's
registered voters registered as having declared a preference
for that political party. Because voters registered under
this bill would be "no party preference" (NPP) voters by
default, as detailed below, this bill could make it
considerably more difficult for certain political parties to
maintain their qualification to participate in elections if
this bill increases the percentage of NPP voters.
Other state laws and policies that are dependent on numbers or
percentages of registered voters include:
a) Local Initiatives, Referenda, and Recall Measures:
Although the number of signatures necessary to qualify a
state initiative, referendum, or recall for the ballot is
based on the number of voters who cast a ballot in a recent
election, under existing law, the number of signatures
needed to qualify a municipal initiative or referendum or a
district initiative for the ballot is based on the number
of registered voters in the jurisdiction.
Similarly, the number of signatures necessary to qualify a
local recall for the ballot, and the time period that
proponents have to collect those signatures, are based on
the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction.
b) Various Local Government Petitions: Existing law
provides for petitions to be used as a means for initiating
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or blocking certain actions with respect to local
government entities. The number of signatures needed on
those petitions often is set as a percentage of the number
of registered voters in the jurisdiction. Among the types
of petitions that are affected are the following:
i) Petitions to form, to oppose the formation of, or to
reorganize, various types of local governmental entities;
ii) Petitions to change the method of selecting board
members to various types of local governmental entities;
and,
iii) Petitions to force an election to be held to fill a
vacancy on the governing board of certain local
governments.
9)Other Policy Considerations: In addition to those outlined
above, there are a number of other policy issues where the
Legislature may wish to provide greater policy direction in
the text of this bill, rather than leaving those policy
determinations to be made entirely by the SOS by regulation.
Among the issues on which the Legislature may wish to provide
policy direction are the following:
a) Which DMV Records? This bill is silent on the issue of
how recent a DMV record must be in order for that record to
be used as the basis for registering a person to vote.
Oregon's legislation did not specify such a timeline, but
subsequent news reports indicate that the state is planning
to review the previous two years' worth of driver's license
records to identify individuals who are eligible to vote.
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b) Information Requested on Voter Registration Forms: This
bill requires the SOS to notify a person who is registered
under its provisions of the procedure for opting out of
registering to vote and for choosing a political party.
Political party preference information, however, is just
one piece of information that is requested on a voter
registration form that is not requested on a driver's
license application. Among the other information that is
requested of voter registration applicants, but not
driver's license applicants, is the following:
i) The applicant's language preference;
ii) The applicant's race;
iii) The applicant's email address;
iv) The applicant's phone number (the driver's license
application asks for a daytime phone number);
v) The applicant's prior registration information; and,
vi) Whether the applicant wants to be a permanent vote
by mail voter.
The Legislature has previously decided that there is value
in asking voter registration applicants to provide the
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information detailed above, as that information may help
facilitate communication with voters and allow elections
officials to better maintain the voter rolls and meet
voters' needs. It may be appropriate to request some or
all of this information from voters as part of the
notification that the SOS sends to a person who is
registered to vote under this bill.
Additionally, to provide for a more efficient voter
registration process in the future, it may be worth
considering whether modifications should be made with
respect to information that the DMV requests and collects,
so that more of this information can be collected at the
time a person applies for a driver's license or state
identification card, rather than attempting to collect that
information through a follow-up communication after a
person has been identified as a candidate to be registered
under the provisions of this bill.
10)Conditional Voter Registration (a.k.a., "Election Day"
Registration): AB 1436 (Feuer), Chapter 497, Statutes of 2012,
permits "conditional voter registration," under which a person
is allowed to register to vote and vote at the office of the
county elections official at any time, including on election
day, if certain requirements are met. Conditional voter
registration will not go into effect until January 1 of the
year following the date that the SOS certifies the operation
of VoteCal. Under conditional voter registration, voters will
cast provisional ballots which will be counted only if the
elections official is able to determine the person's
eligibility to vote, as specified.
Once conditional voter registration is in effect, registering to
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vote in advance of an election will no longer be necessary,
and voter registration requirements will be less of a barrier
to voter participation than under existing law.
Notwithstanding that fact, there will still be advantages to
having voters registered to vote prior to election day.
First, voters who are registered in advance of election day
will receive official election materials that contain
information about the candidates, races, and measures that
will appear on the ballot. Second, conditional voter
registration is not required to be offered at every polling
place-instead it will be offered only at the office of the
county elections official, and at satellite locations that may
be set up at the discretion of elections officials. By
registering to vote in advance of election day, voters will be
able to cast a ballot at their local polling place, or will be
able to cast a vote by mail ballot if they desire. In light
of these facts, and notwithstanding the fact that conditional
voter registration will soon be in effect, automatically
registering certain individuals to vote unless they opt out
could help reduce barriers to voter participation.
11)Increase in "No Party Preference" Voters? California's voter
registration form asks the registrant whether he or she wishes
to disclose a political party preference. A registrant has
the option of selecting to disclose a preference for one of
the six qualified political parties in the state, to disclose
a preference for a political body that is attempting to
qualify as a political party, or to decline to disclose a
party preference. Any voter who chooses this last option,
along with any voter who fails to choose any option, is
registered as NPP.
While this bill requires the SOS to notify every voter who is
registered to vote under its provisions of the procedure for
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choosing a political party, those who do not avail themselves
of that procedure will automatically be designated as NPP
voters. By virtue of that fact, it is reasonable to expect
that this bill will result in a significant increase in the
number and percentage of voters who are registered as NPP
voters.
12)AB 60 Licensees: AB 60 (Alejo), Chapter 524, Statutes of
2013, requires the DMV to issue an original driver's license
to an applicant who is unable to submit satisfactory proof of
legal presence in the United States. Driver's license
applicants under AB 60 must meet all other qualifications for
licensure and must provide satisfactory proof of identity and
California residency. The DMV began accepting applications
for licenses under AB 60 on January 2, 2015.
Because the AB 60 licensing process was specifically established
for individuals who are unable to submit satisfactory proof of
legal presence in the United States, this bill expressly
prohibits the DMV from transmitting information to the SOS
about individuals who applied for or received a driver's
license pursuant to AB 60.
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13)Arguments in Support: The sponsor of this bill, Secretary of
State Alex Padilla, writes in support:
We should make every effort to facilitate the
participation of all citizens in our democracy. In
recent years, modern technology is transforming voter
registration and voting practices. Since 2012,
California has offered online voter registration. In
addition, by July 2016, California is scheduled to
launch VoteCal, a new statewide centralized voter
registration database that will replace voter
registration files currently maintained by each of the
state's 58 county elections officials. VoteCal and
Online Voter Registration rely on existing
data-sharing between the DMV and the [SOS] pursuant to
an agreement required by federal law?.
AB 1461 will enact the "California New Motor Voter
Act" to make voter registration easier when citizens
obtain or renew a driver's license, thereby increasing
opportunities for eligible citizens to participate in
our elections. The bill would require the DMV to
transfer to the [SOS] voter registration information
when a citizen obtains or renews a driver's license or
state identification card. AB 1461 would require the
DMV to only send the SOS the information of citizens
who have [provided] the DMV with documentation that
verifies their citizenship. The bill would require an
opportunity for each citizen whose information is
transferred to choose a political party or decline to
be registered to vote.
14)Related Legislation: AB 786 (Levine), which was scheduled to
be heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee on the
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afternoon of April 27, 2015 (at the time that this analysis
was prepared, the outcome of that hearing was unknown),
requires the DMV, in coordination with the 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 the NVRA. AB 786 was
approved by this committee on April 15, 2015 on a 5-1 vote.
SB 439 (Allen), which is pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee, permits county elections officials to offer
conditional voter registration at satellite offices during the
entire 14 days immediately preceding election day, among other
provisions.
15)Double-Referral: This bill is double-referred to the
Assembly Transportation Committee, and was scheduled to be
heard in that committee on the afternoon of April 27, 2015.
At the time that this analysis was prepared, the outcome of
that hearing was unknown.
Pursuant to a suspension of Assembly Rule 56, this committee has
noticed this bill for hearing on April 29, 2015, pending the
receipt of the bill from the Assembly Transportation
Committee. This bill will only be heard in this committee on
April 29 if the bill is approved by the Assembly
Transportation Committee and is received by this committee by
the time of the hearing.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Secretary of State Alex Padilla (sponsor)
California Public Interest Research Group
Service Employees International Union, California State Council
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
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