BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2455 (Chiu) - Electronic voter registration: public
postsecondary educational institutions
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|Version: June 16, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 2, E. & |
| | C.A. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires by 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 online at the institution to register to vote
on the Secretary of State's (SOS) website. This bill encourages
the University of California (UC) to coordinate with the SOS to
do the same.
Fiscal
Impact:
AB 2455 (Chiu) Page 1 of
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Minor costs to the CSU, CCC, and UC to provide a link or
redirect students online to the SOS website regarding voter
registration.
Unknown, but likely minor costs to SOS related to the increase
in printing the Voter Information Guide.
Background: Existing law requires every campus of the CCC 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 website. Existing law
requests campuses of the UC to comply with this process.
Campuses achieve this by providing a link to the SOS website on
the college's online course registration, whereby students
submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically to the
SOS. This bill essentially requires campuses to provide this
link when students enroll at the campus online.
Existing law requires, pursuant to the California New Motor
Voter Program, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) 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.
Existing law provides that the records of a person that are
transmitted from the DMV to the SOS pursuant to this provision
constitutes a completed affidavit of voter registration for that
person unless: (1) the person declines to register to vote at
the DMV; (2) the person does not attest that he or she meets all
voter eligibility requirements while at the DMV; and (3) the SOS
determines that the person is not eligible to register to vote.
According to the author's office, "Young people and students
tend to have less geographic stability than other eligible
voters. Since they move more often, voter pamphlets and other
election paraphernalia are often sent to their parents' homes or
are lost in the mail. Such instability also leads to confusion
over where they can vote or how they can change their voter
registration address. Additionally, many students do not have
driver's licenses or are newer drivers and thus may not interact
with the DMV and be included in the Motor Voter program."
AB 2455 (Chiu) Page 2 of
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Proposed Law:
This bill requires by July 1, 2018, the CSU and the CCC to
implement a process and the infrastructure to allow a person who
enrolls online at the institution to submit an affidavit of
voter registration to SOS electronically. This bill encourages
the UC to coordinate with the SOS to do the same.
This bill includes legislative intent in enacting this bill, to
take preliminary measures towards the establishment of an
automatic voter registration system for California citizens
enrolled in public postsecondary education.
Staff
Comments: This bill includes legislative intent to take
preliminary measures towards the establishment of an automatic
voter registration system for California citizens enrolled in
public postsecondary education. As stated in the Assembly
Elections and Redistricting Committee analysis, if the intent is
to eventually move toward a voter registration process at
postsecondary institutions that is similar to the California New
Motor Voter process, there are a number of obstacles that will
need to be overcome before such a process is feasible. These
obstacles include the lack of digitized signatures on file at
the CSU and CCC which are taken from driver's licenses in the
DMV process for voter registration purposes. Also, the DMV's
computer systems already have an interface with the state's
voter registration system for validating and updating voter
registrations. This interface does not exist at CSU and CCC.
Therefore, creating a system similar to the California New Motor
Voter Program would likely require significant resources.
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