BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
ELECTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Ben Allen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1461 Hearing Date: 6/30/15
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|Author: |Gonzalez |
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|Version: |6/23/15 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Darren Chesin |
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Subject: Voter registration: Department of Motor Vehicles
DIGEST
Provides that every person who has a driver's license or state
identification card and who can be identified as eligible to
register to vote to be automatically registered to vote, unless
that person opts out, as specified.
ANALYSIS
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 Department of Motor Vehicles (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.
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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.
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.
9) Requires an applicant for an original driver's license or
identification card to submit satisfactory proof that the
applicant's presence in the United States is authorized under
federal law.
10)Provides that the DMV shall issue an original driver's
license to a person who is unable to submit satisfactory
proof that the applicant's presence in the United States is
authorized under federal law if he or she meets all other
qualifications for licensure and provides satisfactory proof
to the department of his or her identity and California
residency, as specified.
This bill:
1)Requires the DMV to electronically provide to the Secretary of
State (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 if the proof that the applicant is
required to submit to prove that his or her presence in the
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United States is authorized under federal law, also
establishes that the applicant is a citizen of the United
States.
b) Requires the records to include the person's name, age,
residence address, electronic signature, and other voter
registration information collected electronically by the
DMV.
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.
d) Prohibits records from being transferred from the DMV to
the SOS pursuant to this bill until after the SOS certifies
that the state has a statewide voter registration database
that complies with the requirements of the federal Help
America Vote Act.
1)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.
2)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;
c) The method by which the person may include his or her
political party preference on his or her voter
registration.
d) The method by which he or she may apply for permanent
vote by mail status.
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e) The method by which he or she may provide a telephone
number, email address, or other contact information.
1)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.
2)Provides that this bill shall not affect the confidentiality
of a person's voter registration information.
3)Requires the SOS to adopt regulations to implement this bill
including regulations addressing both of the following:
a) The form, content, and language options for the notice
to potential registrants described above.
b) A process for canceling the registration of a person who
is ineligible to vote, but became registered pursuant to
this bill provided that ineligible person did not willfully
register to vote in violation of existing law.
BACKGROUND
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 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.
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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 Governor 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).
Motor Voter Enhancements in the 2014-15 Budget . 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
aforementioned 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 period
should California fail to remedy the violations of the NVRA, as
specified.
In response to that letter, and in an effort to now comply with
the NVRA's requirements, the Governor's May Budget Revision and
the subsequently enacted 2015-16 State Budget included $2.35
million in the SOS's budget to improve the voter registration
process at the DMV with $1.25 million of it directed to DMV for
this purpose. According to the State Transportation Agency,
which oversees the DMV, this budget item will provide for all of
the following:
1)Enhance DMV's on-line driver license renewal process by
utilizing an application provided by the SOS that would
pre-populate DMV-related information to an online voter
registration form. By enhancing the driver license renewal by
Internet process, applicants can complete their DMV driver
license renewal online and subsequently register to vote. The
information required for both DMV and voter registration will
be pre-populated into an application allowing the applicant to
complete the voter registration process. Once the voter
registration process is complete, the information would be
submitted electronically to the SOS.
2)Enhance the in-person DMV field office visit by utilizing the
signature capture tablet that is connected to the camera
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station that would prompt the applicant through voter specific
information. The current Driver License/Identification Card
contract is in need of a refresh to both software/hardware.
As part of the refresh, the signature capture tablets would be
replaced with a larger tablet that would enable the applicant
to provide voter specific responses (e.g. party affiliation,
permanent vote by mail status, etc.) allowing the applicant to
register to vote. Upon completion of the signature and photo
(that is used for the driver license), the information would
later be merged with both the DMV and voter specific
information and sent electronically to the SOS.
3)Estimated implementation date would be no later than April 1,
2016.
This bill, by establishing automatic registration, with a
subsequent opt-out process, would seem to replace current opt-in
process going forward, including the enhancements included in
the budget.
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 (in 1996) and as low as 66.3 percent (in
1979).
Oregon's Automatic Voter Registration . While numerous other
nations provide some form of automatic voter registration, no
U.S. states currently take 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
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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 this last March, 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.
VoteCal . 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 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
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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 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.
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
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
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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 (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
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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.
COMMENTS
1)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.
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.
This bill seeks to address voter registration as a barrier to
voting. New research using Google searches concluded that
about 3 million to 4 million more people would have voted in
2012 if voter registration were easier and more convenient.
This bill is a way to ensure that eligible California voters
will not be denied the right to vote due to difficulties
registering.
2)Conditional Voter Registration (a.k.a., "Election Day"
Registration) . AB 1436 (Feuer, Chapter 497, Statutes of
2012), permits "conditional voter registration," under which a
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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 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.
3)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 "no party preference" (NPP).
While this bill requires the SOS to notify every voter who is
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registered to vote under its provisions of the procedure for
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.
4)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.
5)Fiscal Impact . The Assembly Appropriations Committee reported
the following costs associated with this bill: (a) the DMV
estimates costs of approximately $640,000 in 2015-16 and
$530,000 annually thereafter related to programming, driver's
license form modifications, and increased talk-time in field
offices, and (b) the SOS will incur significant mailing costs
to notify persons automatically registered to vote, through
transmission of their DMV records, that they may opt out of
registration within 21 days.
6)Double-Referral . This bill is double-referred to the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee.
RELATED/PRIOR LEGISLATION
AB 786 (Levine) 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. However,
committee staff was informed by the author of AB 786 that it
would be amended and used for a purpose unrelated to voter
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registration.
SB 439 (Allen), which is pending in the Assembly Elections and
Redistricting 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.
PRIOR ACTION
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|Assembly Floor: |52 - 26 |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |12 - 5 |
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|Assembly Elections and Redistricting | 7 - 2 |
|Committee: | |
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|Assembly Transportation Committee |10 - 5 |
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Secretary of State Alex Padilla
Support: Alameda County Board of Supervisors
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
California Association of Nonprofits
California Labor Federation
California League of Conservation Voters
California Professional Firefighters
California Public Interest research Group
California School Employees Association
California State Council of the Service Employees
International Union
California Teachers Association
Congregations Building Community
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Mi Familia Vota Education Fund
Sierra Club California
State Coalition of Probation Organizations
University of California Student Association
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Oppose: American Civil Liberties Union of California
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