BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2101
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2101 (Fong) - As Introduced: February 18, 2010
SUBJECT : Elections: prohibiting payments.
SUMMARY : Permits a court to prevent someone who is convicted of
initiative fraud or voter registration fraud from being paid to
circulate petitions or register voters. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Permits a court, upon finding a person guilty of engaging in
prohibited voter registration activities, to issue an order
prohibiting that person from receiving money or other valuable
consideration for assisting another person to register to vote
by receiving the completed affidavit of registration.
Provides that such an order is in addition to any other
penalty imposed by state law.
2)Permits a court, upon finding a person guilty of engaging in
prohibited conduct regarding the circulation of an initiative,
referendum, or recall petition, to issue an order prohibiting
that person from receiving money or other valuable
consideration for gathering signatures on an initiative,
referendum, or recall petition. Provides that such an order
is in addition to any other penalty imposed by state law.
3)Provides that a violation of an order issued by a court
pursuant to this bill is a misdemeanor.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits various conduct with respect to the registration of
voters, including the following:
a) Registering a person, including oneself, who is not
entitled to register to vote;
b) Registering a fictitious person to vote;
c) Registering a person to vote under a false name or
address;
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d) Interfering with the return of a completed affidavit of
voter registration;
e) Refusing to return a completed affidavit of
registration;
f) Altering the content of an affidavit of registration
without the consent of the affiant; and,
g) Misusing the information from an affidavit of
registration.
2)Prohibits various conduct with respect to the circulation of
an initiative, referendum, or recall petition, including the
following:
a) Misrepresentation by the circulator of a petition of the
contents, purport, or effect of the petition;
b) Refusal by the circulator to allow a petition signer to
read the petition;
c) Obscuring the summary of a measure prepared by the
Attorney General from the view of a prospective signer;
d) Offering or giving money or other valuable consideration
in exchange for a person's signature on a petition;
e) Affixing or soliciting false or forged signatures, or
fictitious names, on a petition;
f) Using the information on a petition that has been signed
by voters, including the voters' signatures, for any
purpose other than the qualification of the measure for the
ballot; and,
g) Making a false affidavit concerning a petition.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program; contains
a crimes and infractions disclaimer.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
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Stories about voters being misled into signing initiative
petitions that they do not support or having their party
affiliations changed without their consent are all to
common.
In the last two election cycles, individuals registering
voters in Southern California have been arrested and
charged in schemes to change voters' registrations from
Democratic to Republican without the voters' consent.
Additionally, numerous complaints in recent years have
uncovered a common tactic of dishonest signature gatherers,
who tell voters that they need to sign multiple times to
have their signature counted on an initiative petition.
These signature gatherers then get voters to sign other
initiative petitions without disclosing to the voter what
those petitions would do.
Unfortunately, such problems are all too common because
people who register voters or gather signatures on
petitions are often paid a "bounty" for each person that
they register or for each signature that they gather. As a
result, signature gatherers and people registering voters
have a financial incentive to mislead voters to get them to
sign a petition or to re-register to vote.
Previous efforts to limit the ability to pay "bounties" for
collecting signatures on petitions or registering voters
have failed due to concerns that such laws may make it more
difficult for grassroots organizations to gather signatures
on petitions and register voters.
In reflection of those concerns, AB 2101 takes a narrower
approach. AB 2101 cracks down on initiative fraud and
voter registration fraud by allowing courts to ban
individuals who are convicted of fraud from being paid to
collect signatures on initiative petitions or for
registering voters. Law abiding citizens who are paid to
register voters and collect signatures on petitions would
not be affected by this bill. Instead, this bill takes aim
at those who have been convicted of fraudulent behavior,
and gives judges the tools to prevent those individuals
from continuing to threaten the integrity of California's
elections.
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2)Similar Laws in Other States : The provisions of this bill are
similar to laws enacted in Arizona and Oregon in 2009 which
prohibit petition circulators who are convicted of fraud from
being compensated for collecting signatures on initiative,
referendum, or recall petitions. In 2009, Oregon's
Legislature approved and the Governor signed HB 2005, which
among other provisions prohibits a person from being eligible
to register as a petition circulator if that person has had
criminal or civil penalties imposed against him or her for a
violation of the state's laws governing the circulation of
petitions. In Arizona, the Legislature approved and the
Governor approved SB 1091, which among other provisions
prohibits a person convicted of engaging in a pattern of
petition fraud from participating in any initiative,
referendum, or recall campaign for five years.
3)Previous Legislation : SB 34 (Corbett) of 2009 would have made
it a misdemeanor for a person to pay or to receive money or
any other thing of value based on the number of signatures
collected on a state or local initiative, referendum, or
recall petition. SB 34 was vetoed by the Governor, who
expressed concern that it could "make it more difficult for
grassroots organizations to gather the necessary signatures
and qualify measures for the ballot."
SB 1686 (Denham) of 2008 would have made it a misdemeanor,
punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000, by imprisonment in
a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both the fine and
imprisonment, for a person, company, organization, company
official, or other organizational officer in charge of a
person who circulates an initiative, referendum, or recall
petition to knowingly direct or permit the person to make a
false affidavit concerning the initiative, referendum, or
recall petition. SB 1686 was vetoed by the Governor, though
he did not express any policy objections to the bill.
4)Double-Referral : This bill has been double-referred to the
Assembly Committee on Judiciary.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
AB 2101
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Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094