BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: SB 1140 HEARING DATE:
4/6/10
AUTHOR: YEE ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 4/5/10
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voter registration: one-stop voting
DESCRIPTION
Existing law , provides that an eligible elector may not
vote in an election unless his or her affidavit of
registration is executed and received by the county
elections official on or before the 15th day prior to the
election. However, existing law also permits an
individual who becomes a new United States citizen between
7 and 14 days before Election Day to register to vote up to
7 days prior to the election and to vote in that election.
Existing law , pursuant to the federal Help America Vote Act
of 2002, requires the Secretary of State(SOS) to establish
a statewide voter registration database (known as VoteCal)
that shall serve as the state's official voter file.
According to the SOS, VoteCal is scheduled for full
deployment no later than February, 2012 and will provide
for, among other things, real time voter registration
processing, checks of duplicate registrations, identity
authentication, and online voter registration. VoteCal is
currently designed and intended to be available and
accessible only at permanent offices of county elections
officials.
This bill would establish "one-stop voting" whereby an
eligible elector would be permitted to register to vote and
immediately vote on Election Day or at any time prior to
election day when ballots may be cast at a location at
which one-stop voting is available.
This bill would require voters availing themselves of
one-stop voting to present proof of identity and current
residence, as specified, and to complete an affidavit of
registration. Upon completing that registration and upon
verification, new voters would be immediately eligible to
vote by regular. If the voter was previously registered or
is unable to complete that registration because the voter
is unable to present proof of identity or proof of current
residence, the voter would be permitted to register and
vote by a provisional ballot.
This bill would require each county elections official to
compile an index of voters who register to vote by one-stop
voting and, after an election, the elections official would
be required to send these voters a notification form. The
affidavit of registration of any person whose notification
form is returned by the post office as undeliverable shall
be placed in the inactive file. After the official canvass
of the votes for that election is completed, the elections
official would also be required to review the names on the
index and cancel duplicate registrations and notify the
district attorney and the SOS if it appears that a person
has engaged in fraudulent voting.
This bill would require that one-stop voting be available
at every permanent office of a county elections official
beginning in 2011. Commencing in 2013, if VoteCal is
approved by the SOS for use at polling places, each county
would be required to either establish at least one one-stop
voting location for every 100,000 voters or ensure that
every voter residence is within 10 miles of such a site, at
the discretion of the county elections official. Each
location at which one-stop voting is available must have a
separate area for the process and have at least one
precinct board member who is trained in one-stop voting.
This bill would require the SOS and local elections
officials to make efforts to educate voters about one-stop
voting and would authorize the SOS to adopt regulations to
implement one-stop registration and voting.
BACKGROUND
Other States . The following states have some form of
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Election Day voter registration: Connecticut (for
presidential elections only), Idaho, Iowa, Maine,
Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina,
Wisconsin and Wyoming. North Dakota has no voter
registration requirement at all.
According to a study conducted by Dr. Michael McDonald,
Associate Professor at George Mason University, for the
United States Elections Project, nationwide turnout in the
2008 General Election among the voting-eligible population
(VEP) was 61.7% which was identical to turnout among the
VEP in California for that election. Among the states that
have some form of Election Day voter registration, turnout
among the VEP for that election ranged from a low of 63.4%
in Iowa to a high of 78.1% in Minnesota with an overall
average of 68.7%.
2002 Initiative Measure . Proposition 52, which appeared on
the 2002 General Election ballot, would have allowed
eligible citizens, upon presenting proof of current
residence, to register up to and including election day.
That measure failed by a margin of 40.9% to 59.1%
COMMENTS
1.According to the author , it is a fundamental principle of
the United States that the people should have access to
our systems of democracy. However, the voter registration
process is often a barrier to participation. California
is ranked 41st out of 50 states in voter turnout. In
2006, only 76 percent of the voting-age population was
registered. Research has shown that election-day
registration can boost voter turnout considerably -- up
to 7 percentage points.
SB 1140 deletes the arbitrary timelines which prevent
eligible citizens from voting in elections. The bill
will allow eligible citizens to register and vote up to
and including on Election Day.
California's registration procedures have not kept up with
available technology. SB 1140 will be phased-in in
coordination with the introduction of VoteCal, a
statewide online database of all registered voters, which
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will allow counties to verify new voters by accessing a
real-time database of voters.
Eight other states allow citizens to vote without
pre-registration. Six states have successfully used
election-day registration for years and have increased
their voter turnout even as the national average
continues to fall: Idaho, New Hampshire, Maine,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In North Carolina
during the early voting period you can register and vote
at any polling site. North Dakota requires no
registration.
2.Similar Legislation . AB 1531 (Portantino), which is
pending in this committee, would authorize a person who
qualifies to vote in the state to register or reregister
at the office of the local elections official commencing
14 days prior to election day and continuing through
election day or at the person's precinct on election day.
A person who registers to vote prior to Election Day and
provides proof of current residence would be permitted to
cast a vote by mail ballot. A person who registers to
vote on Election Day would be permitted to cast a
provisional ballot. The bill would also require local
elections officials to compile a list or index of voters
who registered or reregistered to vote pursuant to these
provisions and to conduct a review no later than 30 days
after the canvass of the votes for the election.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: California Common Cause
Support: American Civil Liberties Union
California Labor Federation
League of Women Voters of California
National Korean American Service and Education
Consortium
New America Foundation
The Greenlining Institute
Oppose: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
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