BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Ron Calderon, Chair
BILL NO: SB 812 HEARING DATE: 4/18/07
AUTHOR: CORREA ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 4/10/07
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voter registration: paid registration activities
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires any person who accepts money or other
valuable consideration in return for assisting with voter
registration to sign and affix on the voter registration
form his or her full name, telephone number, address, and
the name and phone number of the person, company, or
organization, if any, that agrees to pay money or valuable
consideration for the completed affidavit of registration.
Existing law requires any person, company, or other
organization that agrees to pay money or other valuable
consideration to a person for assisting with voter
registration to maintain specific records.
Existing law establishes penalties for fraudulent activity
related to voter registration.
This bill would prohibit any person, company, or other
organization from agreeing to pay money or other valuable
consideration on a per-affidavit basis to any person who
assists another person to register to vote by receiving the
completed affidavit of registration. A violation of these
prohibitions would be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine
not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by
imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months,
or when the failure to comply is found willful, by both
that fine and imprisonment.
Specifically, this bill would add the following penal
provisions to the Elections Code:
A. Any person who offers to pay or pays money or other
valuable consideration to another person, either
directly or indirectly, on a per-affidavit basis to
assist another person to register to vote by receiving
the completed affidavit of registration is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
B. Any person who receives money or other valuable
consideration, either directly or indirectly, on a
per-affidavit basis to assist another person to
register to vote by receiving the completed affidavit
of registration is guilty of a misdemeanor.
C. This section shall not apply to any state political
party that reimburses its central committees and clubs
on a per-affidavit basis.
D. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
prohibit payment for assisting another person to
register to vote by receiving the completed affidavit
which is not, either directly or indirectly, on a
per-affidavit basis.
E. Any person found guilty of violating this section
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor for each completed
affidavit of registration.
BACKGROUND
Individuals who are paid to register voters or to collect
signatures on initiative, referendum, or recall petitions
are commonly referred to as "bounty hunters."
In March of 2006, the Orange County Register and the Los
Angeles Times reported that Orange County elections
officials received several complaints about a voter
registration campaign for the Republican Party of Orange
County from voters who were re-registered with the
Republican Party without their permission. According to
press reports, the company in charge of the registration
drive was paying workers as much as $10 for every completed
voter registration card. As of May 2006, Orange County
elections officials reported receiving about 450 complaints
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of illegal voter registrations. Similar complaints were
made about voter registration campaigns in Riverside and
San Bernardino counties.
Two of the original twelve individuals involved in the
Orange County scandal admitted their roles and were
sentenced in January 2007 to three years formal probation
and time already served, while the remaining defendants
await a court appearance.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author , we know that voting fraud by
voters is extremely rare, however voter registration
fraud by bounty hunters is all too common. Every
election cycle yields another crop of individuals who
abuse our voter registration regulations. Thousands of
voters in California have had their party affiliation
tampered with, many of them had their names forged,
others were duped into registering despite their
ineligibility or unknowingly switched parties, and many
non-citizens have been misled into registering to vote,
and almost all of this because of individuals who are
paid, often in cash, for voter registrations on a bounty
system, or per-affidavit.
2. Bounty Hunter Enforcement Actions : According to
information from the Secretary of State (SOS), the
Election Fraud Investigation Unit (EFIU) of the SOS has
opened 1,023 cases involving bounty hunters between 1994
and 2005. About 66% of the cases opened by the EFIU
involved cases of fraudulent voter registration, while
approximately 18% of cases involved falsified petition
signatures.
As of 2005, 67 of those bounty hunters were convicted
following an EFIU investigation, with 61 of those
convictions for fraudulent voter registration or
falsified petition signatures.
3. Prior Legislation : SB 1047 (Bowen) of 2006 was amended
late in the legislative Session and was never heard in
the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee. SB
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1047 would have banned anyone from paying initiative or
voter registration signature gatherers on a
per-signature basis.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: People for the American Way
Oppose: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
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