BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2455
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2455 (Chiu and Bonta)
As Amended August 15, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |52-23 |(May 23, 2016) |SENATE: |26-12 |(August 18, |
| | | | | |2016) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
SUMMARY: Requires the California State University (CSU) and
California Community Colleges (CCC) to permit students who
enroll online at the institution to electronically register to
vote through the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State
(SOS), beginning July 1, 2018. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the CSU and CCC, not later than 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 Internet Web site
of the SOS, as specified. Encourages the University of
California (UC) to coordinate with the SOS to develop such a
process.
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2)Declares the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this bill,
to take preliminary measures towards the establishment of an
automatic voter registration system for California citizens
enrolled at state public college and university campuses.
The Senate amendments:
1)Move the Assembly-approved contents of the bill to a different
section of law and make a conforming change.
2)Require the SOS, when he or she receives a voter registration
record from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), as
specified, for a person who is already registered to vote, to
use the information received to update the voter's
registration record. Provide that if the record does not
contain information for which a space is provided on the voter
registration application, but that information was provided in
the voter's prior registration, the information from the prior
registration shall remain part of the voter's record.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Minor costs to the CSU, CCC, and UC to provide a link or
redirect students online to the SOS website regarding voter
registration.
2)Unknown, but likely minor costs to SOS related to the increase
in printing the Voter Information Guide.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "Young people haven't been
registering to vote or turning out to the polls. 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. Because of their low voting numbers, the young adult
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voice was greatly underrepresented in 2014. Youth made up a
meager 3.9% of those who voted, despite constituting 14.5% of
the eligible voting population.
"The Student Voting Act will implement an online link
between class enrollment and voter registration for
students at the [UC], [CSU] and [CCC] systems.
Collectively these campuses have approximately 2.8 million
students. These public college and university systems can
serve as an important entry point register hundreds of
thousands of additional Californians."
SB 854 (Ridley-Thomas), Chapter 481, Statutes of 2007, required
every CCC and CSU campus 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 provisions of SB 854 were updated by AB 1446
(Mullin), Chapter 593, Statutes of 2014, to require 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.
According to an annual report prepared by the SOS, in 2015,
14,669 students at CCC, CSU, and UC campuses completed a voter
registration application online using this process.
This bill would require the CCC and the CSU systems, and would
request the UC system, to create a similar process to allow a
student to submit an electronic voter registration affidavit at
the time he or she enrolls online at the higher education
institution.
The Senate amendments to this bill move the Assembly-approved
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contents of the bill to a different section of code.
Additionally, the Senate amendments make minor changes to
existing law to ensure that registered voters'
previously-identified voting preferences are not inadvertently
removed when they are re-registered to vote at the DMV pursuant
to AB 1461 (Gonzalez), Chapter 729, Statutes of 2015. This
bill, as amended in the Senate, is generally consistent with
Assembly actions.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by:
Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN:
0004207