BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1434
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Date of Hearing: June 22, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 1434 (Price) - As Introduced: February 19, 2010
AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED
SENATE VOTE : 21-11
SUBJECT : Voter registration: affidavits: rebuttable
presumptions.
SUMMARY : Provides that if a person fails to identify his or her
place of birth on an affidavit of registration, there is a
rebuttable presumption that the person is eligible to register
to vote if he or she marked the box on the affidavit indicating
that he or she is a citizen of the United States. Allows a
county elections official to e-mail a voter who submitted an
incomplete affidavit of registration in order to obtain the
information that was missing on the affidavit from the voter.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that a person may not be registered as a voter except
by affidavit of registration.
2)Requires the affidavit of registration to show, among other
things, the affiant's name, place of residence, date of birth,
state or country of birth, and party affiliation.
3)Provides that if the county elections official receives an
affidavit of registration that does not include portions of
the information for which space is provided, the county
elections official shall apply the following rebuttable
presumptions:
a) If no middle name or initial is shown, it is presumed
that none exists;
b) If no party affiliation is shown, it is presumed that
the affiant has no party affiliation;
c) If no execution date is shown, it is presumed that the
affidavit was executed on or before the 15th day prior to
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the election if the affidavit is received by the county
elections official on or before the 15th day prior to the
election or if the affidavit is postmarked on or before the
15th day prior to the election and is received by mail by
the county elections official; and,
d) If the affiant fails to identify his or her state of
birth within the United States, it is presumed that the
affiant was born in a state or territory of the United
States if the birthplace of the affiant is shown as "United
States," "U.S.A," or some other recognizable term
designating the United States.
4)Provides that if an affidavit of registration does not contain
all of the information required, but the telephone number of
the affiant is legible, the county elections official shall
telephone the affiant and attempt to collect the missing
information. Provides that if an affidavit of registration
does not contain all of the information required, and the
county elections official is not able to collect the missing
information by telephone, but the mailing address of the
affiant is legible, the county elections official shall reject
the affidavit, inform the affiant of the reason for rejection,
and send a new voter registration card to the affiant.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Amendments : SB 6 (Maldonado), Chapter 1, Statutes of
2009 made various changes to state law to implement a "top
two" primary election system, but provided that those changes
would go into effect only if voters approved Proposition 14 at
this month's statewide primary election. As a result, there
are multiple sections of the Elections Code for which two
versions appear in statute - one version in the event that
Proposition 14 passed, and one version in the event that
Proposition 14 failed. While the election results from this
month's statewide primary election are not yet official,
Proposition 14 appears to have been approved by the voters
with about 54 percent of the vote.
One of the sections of the Elections Code for which there were
two versions is Section 2154. As introduced, this bill
proposed to amend both of those versions. Now that
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Proposition 14 apparently has been approved by the voters, the
author has proposed amendments to remove from the provisions
of this bill the version of Section 2154 that would have been
in effect had Proposition 14 failed. Those amendments are
non-substantive.
Additionally, the author has proposed amendments to permit a
county elections official to e-mail a voter who submitted an
incomplete affidavit of registration in order to obtain the
information that was missing on the affidavit from the voter.
This analysis reflects these proposed author's amendments. The
text of these amendments is as follows:
On page 2, strike out lines 1 to 26, inclusive, and insert:
SECTION 1. Section 2153 of the Elections Code is amended to
read:
2153. (a) Except as provided in Section 2154, the affidavit
of registration shall show all the facts required to be
stated.
(b) If the affidavit does not contain all of the information
required, but the telephone number or the e-mail address of
the affiant is legible, the county elections official shall
telephone or e-mail the affiant and attempt to collect the
missing information.
(c) If the affidavit does not contain all of the information
required, and the county elections official is not able to
collect the missing information by telephone or e-mail , but
the mailing address of the affiant is legible, the county
elections official shall inform the affiant of the reason for
rejection and shall send to the affiant a new voter
registration card.
On page 3, strike out lines 16 to 20, inclusive.
2)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
SB 1434 creates a rebuttable presumption clarifying that if
a registrant fails to identify his or her place of birth,
it is presumed that he or she is eligible to register to
vote as long as he or she marked the box stating that he or
she is a citizen of the United States and signs the
affidavit under penalty of perjury. This proposal will
allow county elections officials to process a voter
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registration card that is missing this information without
needing to contact the registrant by phone or mail.
Counties may realize a cost savings to the extent that
staff is not required to contact registrants to obtain this
information.
3)Federal Voter Registration Application : The National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-31), also known as
"Motor Voter," requires every state to accept a uniform
federal voter registration application by mail, among other
provisions. Under Motor Voter, the federal voter registration
application may require only such identifying information and
other information as is necessary to enable the appropriate
election official to assess the eligibility of the applicant
and to administer voter registration and other parts of the
election process. As a result, the federal voter registration
application, which is accepted for voter registration in
California pursuant to federal law, does not request
information about the applicant's place of birth.
Because the uniform federal voter registration application does
not contain a space for the applicant's place of birth, any
Californian who registers to vote using that form will have
his or her registration processed even though he or she has
not specified his or her place of birth on the voter
registration application. On the other hand, any voter who
attempts to register using the state's voter registration
affidavit and who leaves the space for "place of birth" blank
does not have his or her registration processed unless the
county elections official is able to contact that voter and
obtain that information from the voter.
Given the fact that a person's place of birth is not relevant in
determining whether that person is eligible to vote, the
committee should consider whether it is appropriate for a
voter registration application on the uniform federal form to
be treated differently than an application on the state form,
as is the case under existing law.
4)Arguments in Opposition : According to the Governor's Office
of Planning and Research:
By decreasing the requisite information, duplicate
registration forms would be more difficult to identify.
Additionally, by enacting a rebuttable presumption,
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information pertaining to state or country of birth would
essentially become ineffective in determining the validity
of a registration affidavit. With less information to
verify that a registration form is valid, it would only
become easier to defraud county elections officials.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Secretary of State Debra Bowen (sponsor)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
Opposition
Governor's Office of Planning and Research
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094