BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
ELECTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Ben Allen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2455 Hearing Date: 6/21/16
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|Author: |Chiu |
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|Version: |6/16/16 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Frances Tibon Estoista |
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Subject: Electronic voter registration: public postsecondary
educational institutions.
DIGEST
This bill requires, no later than July 1, 2018, the California
State University (CSU) and the California Community Colleges
(CCC) to implement a process and the infrastructure to allow a
person who enrolls at the institution online to submit an
affidavit of voter registration electronically.
ANALYSIS
Existing law:
1)Authorizes a person who is qualified to register to vote and
who has a valid California driver's license or state
identification card to submit an affidavit of voter
registration electronically on the Internet Web site of the
Secretary of State (SOS).
2)Requires a person who registers to vote online to assent
affirmatively to the use of his or her signature from his or
her driver's license or state identification card for voter
registration purposes. Requires the SOS to obtain an
electronic copy of the signature of a person who registers to
vote online directly from the Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV).
3)Requires, pursuant to the Student Voter Registration Act,
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every campus of the CCCs and CSU that operates an automated
class registration system to permit students, through the
automated registration process, to apply to register to vote
online by submitting an affidavit of voter registration
electronically on the SOS's Web site, and encourages campuses
of the University of California (UC) to comply with this
process.
4)Requires the DMV, pursuant to the California New Motor Voter
Program (CNMVP), to transfer records to the SOS of each person
who submits an application for a driver's license or state
identification card, or provides the DMV with a change of
address, and who attests that he or she meets all voter
eligibility requirements. Provides that the records of a
person that are transmitted from the DMV to the SOS pursuant
to this provision constitute a completed affidavit of voter
registration for that person unless:
a) The person affirmatively declines to register to vote at
the DMV.
b) The person does not attest that he or she meets all
voter eligibility requirements while at the DMV.
c) The SOS determines that the person is not eligible to
register to vote.
This bill:
1) Requires the CSU and the CCC, and encourages the UC, by July
1, 2018, to implement a process and the infrastructure to
allow a person who enrolls online at the institution to
submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically on
the SOS's Web site in accordance with existing law.
2) States legislative intent to take preliminary measure
towards the establishment of an automatic voter registration
system for California citizens enrolled at state public
college and university campuses.
BACKGROUND
Student Voter Registration Act : AB 593 (M. Ridley-Thomas,
Chapter 819, Statutes of 2003), created the Student Voter
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Registration Act of 2003 which, among other things, required the
SOS to provide every high school, CCC, CSU, and UC campus with
voter registration forms and information describing eligibility
requirements and instructions on how to return the completed
form. SB 854 (M. Ridley-Thomas, Chapter 481, Statutes of 2007),
amended the law to require every CCC and CSU that operates an
automated class registration system to permit students, during
the class registration process, to receive a voter registration
application that is preprinted with personal information
relevant to voter registration, as specified. The UC system was
encouraged to comply with this provision.
Following the launch of California's online voter registration
system, the Student Voter Registration Act was updated by AB
1446 (Mullin, Chapter 593, Statutes of 2014), to eliminate
requirements for the SOS to provide high schools, CCC, CSU, and
UC campuses with a number of paper voter registration forms
consistent with the number of students enrolled, and instead
required the SOS to provide voter registration forms upon
request. AB 1446 also updated the voter registration process at
CSU and CCC campuses that was created through SB 854 by
requiring that an automated class registration system permit
students to apply to register to vote online by submitting an
affidavit of voter registration electronically on the SOS's
Internet Web site.
COMMENTS
According to the author , "In 2014, 18-24 year-olds had the
lowest turnout of all age groups: only 285,000 of 3.5 million
eligible young adult voters turned out to vote. For young
people in particular, the process of registering to vote can be
a deterrent and can present obstacles that affect their ability
to register and vote at greater levels. Young people have
higher rates of geographic mobility, which affects how
frequently they must update their voter registration
information. When young voters move or their information
changes (like when they go to college), their registration
records may not be updated, effectively keeping them off of the
voter rolls."
California New Motor Voter Program : Last year, the Legislature
passed and the Governor signed AB 1461 (Gonzalez, Chapter 729,
Statutes of 2015), also known as the California New Motor Voter
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Program (CNMVP), which provides for every person who submits an
application for a driver's license or state identification card,
or provides the DMV with a change of address, and who attests
that he or she meets all voter eligibility requirements, to be
registered to vote, unless that person opts out, as specified.
The process established under the CNMVP is sometimes referred to
as "automatic" or "automated" voter registration.
The CNMVP will be implemented no later than one year after the
SOS certifies all of the following: 1) California's new
statewide voter registration database, known as VoteCal, is
fully operational; 2) the Legislature has appropriated the funds
necessary for the SOS and the DMV to implement and maintain the
CNMVP; and, 3) regulations required by the CNMVP have been
adopted by the SOS. At present all systems appear to be a go,
and it is anticipated CNMVP will be implemented the middle of
2017.
The DMV is uniquely positioned among governmental bodies to
implement a program like the CNMVP, and to increase voter
registration rates through such a program. First, the DMV
already had obligations under the National Voter Registration
Act (NVRA) of 1993 to offer voter registration services - a
requirement that was enacted, in part, due to the fact that
motor vehicle departments regularly interact with a high
percentage of the eligible voter population. As a result,
implementing the CNMVP through the DMV ensured that it would
reach a large portion of the eligible voter population. Second,
DMV records already contain much of the information needed in
order to register a person to vote, meaning that only limited
additional information needs to be collected from a person to
complete that person's registration. Third, the DMV's computer
systems already have an interface with the state's voter
registration system for the purposes of validating and updating
voter registrations. That interface will be crucial for the
implementation of the CNMVP. Finally, the DMV already has
digitized signatures on file for most of its customers, and
California law requires a signature to be included in a voter's
registration record for a variety of elections-related purposes.
All these factors reduced the challenges to implementing the
CNMVP and increased the likelihood that the program will result
in a significant increase in the number of registered voters.
This bill declares the intent of the Legislature to take
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preliminary measures towards the establishment of an automatic
voter registration system for California citizens enrolled at
state public college and university campuses. As noted in the
Assembly Elections and Redistricting analysis, "If the desire is
to eventually move toward a voter registration process at
colleges and universities that is similar to the CNMVP process,
there are a number of obstacles that will need to be overcome
before such a process is feasible. Unlike the DMV, the CSU and
CCC systems do not typically have digitized signatures on file
for their customers (students). Furthermore, the type of
interface that the DMVs computers have with the state's voter
registration system does not exist with the CSU and CCC systems.
In light of these facts, any future attempt to implement a
CNMVP-like process at the CSU and CCC systems will face
obstacles that did not exist for implementing the program with
the DMV. Furthermore, such a program at the CSU and CCC system
will reach a substantially smaller portion of the eligible voter
population than the CNMVP will reach through the DMV."
California Registration Statistics : According to the most
recent report of registration produced by the SOS, there are
17,915,053 registered voters in California out of an estimated
24,783,789 Californians who are eligible to register to vote,
meaning that approximately 72.3 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). According to data from the US Census, eligible
Californians aged 18-24 are less likely to be registered to vote
than any other age group; in 2014, eligible 18- to 24-year olds
in California were only about two-thirds as likely to be
registered to vote as eligible Californians as a whole, and were
only about 56% as likely to be registered as eligible voters
aged 65 or older.
Annual report . AB 1446 (Mullin, Ch. 593, Statutes of 2014),
requires the SOS to submit an annual report to the Legislature
on its student voter registration efforts. The report is to
include estimates as to how many voter registration forms were
sent to high schools, campuses of the CCC, CSU and UC; how many
voter registration forms were submitted; and how many electronic
affidavits of voter registration were submitted by students.
According to the SOS's annual report, in 2015, 14,669 students
at CCC, CSU, and UC campuses completed a voter registration
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application online using the process established by the Student
Voter Registration Act.
RELATED/PRIOR LEGISLATION
AB 1446 (Mullin, Chapter 593, Statutes of 2014), updated the
Student Voter Registration Act of 2003 by eliminating
requirements for the SOS to provide high schools, CCC, CSU, and
UC campuses with a number of paper voter registration forms
consistent with the number of students enrolled, and instead
required the SOS to provide voter registration forms upon
request.
SB 854 (M. Ridley-Thomas, Chapter 481, Statutes of 2007),
amended the law to require every CCC and CSU that operates an
automated class registration system to permit students, during
the class registration process, to receive a voter registration
application that is preprinted with personal information
relevant to voter registration, as specified.
AB 593 (M. Ridley-Thomas, Chapter 819, Statutes of 2003),
created the Student Voter Registration Act of 2003 which, among
other things, required the SOS to provide every high school,
CCC, CSU, and UC campus with voter registration forms and
information describing eligibility requirements and instructions
on how to return the completed form.
PRIOR ACTION
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|Senate Education Committee | 7 - 2 |
|Assembly Floor: |52 - 23 |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |13 - 5 |
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|Assembly Elections and Redistricting | 5 - 2 |
|Committee: | |
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Secretary of State, Alex Padilla
California Common Cause
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
University of California
University of California Student Association
Oppose: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
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