BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2101|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2101
Author: Fong (D)
Amended: 5/20/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS, REAPP. & C.A. COMM. : 5-0, 6/15/10
AYES: Hancock, Denham, DeSaulnier, Liu, Strickland
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/29/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-0, 5/6/10 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Elections: prohibiting payments
SOURCE : California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials
DIGEST : This bill authorizes a court, upon finding a
person guilty of engaging in prohibited voter registration
activities, to order, as a condition of probation, that the
person be prohibited from receiving money or other
consideration for assisting another person to register to
vote. This bill also authorizes a court, upon finding a
person guilty of violating provisions of law making certain
activities relating to the circulation of an initiative,
referendum, or recall petition a criminal offense.
CONTINUED
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ANALYSIS : Existing law makes certain activities relating
to voter registration a criminal offense, including the
following:
Registering a person, including oneself, who is not
entitled to register to vote.
Registering a fictitious person to vote.
Registering a person to vote under a false name or
address.
Interfering with the return of a completed affidavit of
voter registration.
Refusing to return a completed affidavit of registration.
Altering the content of an affidavit of registration
without the consent of the affiant.
Misusing the information from an affidavit of
registration.
Existing law prohibits various conduct with respect to the
circulation of an initiative, referendum, or recall
petition, including the following:
Misrepresentation by the circulator of a petition of the
contents, purport, or effect of the petition.
Refusal by the circulator to allow a petition signer to
read the petition;
Obscuring the summary of a measure prepared by the
Attorney General from the view of a prospective signer.
Offering or giving money or other valuable consideration
in exchange for a person's signature on a petition.
Affixing or soliciting false or forged signatures, or
fictitious names, on a petition.
Using the information on a petition that has been signed
by voters, including the voters' signatures, for any
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purpose other than the qualification of the measure for
the ballot.
Making a false affidavit concerning a petition.
This bill authorizes a court upon finding a person guilty
of the aforementioned violations, to issue an order, as a
condition of probation, that the person be prohibited from
receiving money or other valuable consideration for (1)
assisting another person to register to vote by receiving
the completed affidavit or (2) for gathering signatures on
an initiative, referendum or recall petition.
Background
The individuals who are paid to collect signatures on
initiative, referendum, recall petitions or voter
registrations are commonly referred to as "bounty hunters."
To qualify an initiative to be placed on the statewide
ballot, proponents must gather hundreds of thousands of
signatures. The need to collect this large number of
signatures within a limited timeframe has given rise to an
industry of petition management firms that pay signature
gatherers a bounty based on the number of signatures they
collect.
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/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.
Prior Legislation
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SB 34 (Corbett), 2009-10 Session, 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. The bill 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), 2007-08 Session, 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. The bill was
vetoed by the Governor, though he did not express any
policy objections to the bill.
AB 2946 (Leno), 2005-06 Session, among other provisions,
would have invalidated any signatures collected in
violation of any provision of state law relating to the
circulation of a statewide initiative, referendum, or
recall petition, would have required proponents of a
statewide initiative, referendum, or recall to notify the
Secretary of State if they became aware of unlawful conduct
by the circulators of their petitions, and would have made
the proponents civilly liable if they failed to do so,
among other provisions. The bill was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger.
AB 980 (Pavley), 2001-02 Session, would have limited
payment on a per-piece or per-signature basis for
individuals gathering signatures, registering voters, or
distributing absentee ballot applications. The bill was
approved by the Assembly Elections Committee but was never
brought up for a vote on the Assembly Floor.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
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SUPPORT : (Verified 7/1/10)
California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials
(source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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. 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, this bill takes a narrower
approach. This bill 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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De
Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande,
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Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino,
Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio,
Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bass, Block, De La Torre, Gilmore,
Mendoza, Vacancy
DLW:mw 7/1/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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