BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1434|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1434
Author: Price (D)
Amended: 6/24/10
Vote: 21
SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COM. : 3-2, 4/20/10
AYES: Hancock, DeSaulnier, Liu
NOES: Denham, Strickland
SENATE FLOOR : 21-11, 5/27/10
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Ducheny,
Florez, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Negrete
McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Romero, Simitian,
Steinberg, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Cogdill, Correa, Dutton,
Hollingsworth, Huff, Runner, Strickland, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cedillo, Cox, Denham, Harman, Oropeza,
Wiggins, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 47-27, 7/1/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Voter registration: affidavits: rebuttable
presumptions
SOURCE : Secretary of State
DIGEST : This bill provides that if an affiant of voter
registration fails to identify his/her place of birth, the
county elections official shall apply a rebuttable
presumption that the affiant is eligible to register to
CONTINUED
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vote if he or she marked the box on the affidavit of
registration, executed under penalty of perjury, that he or
she is a citizen of the United States.
Assembly Amendments deleted the Senate provisions which
will have incorporated provisions of SB 6 (Maldonado), and
adds a provision to allow a county election official to
e-mail a voter who submitted an incomplete affidavit of
registration in order to obtain the information that is
necessary on the affidavit from the voter.
ANALYSIS :
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 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.
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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.
Comments
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
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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, it is unclear why a voter registration made on the
uniform federal form should be treated differently than an
application on the state form, as is the case under
existing law.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/10/10)
Secretary of State (source)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/22/10)
The Governor's Office of Planning and Research
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, this bill
creates a rebuttable presumption clarifying that if a
registrant fails to identify his/her place of birth, it is
presumed that he or she is eligible to register to vote as
long as he/she marked the box stating that he/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 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.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Per the Assembly Election and
Redistricting Committee analysis of 6/22/10, the Governor's
Office of Planning and Research opposes this bill and
state, "By decreasing the requisite information, duplicate
registration forms would be more difficult to identify.
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Additionally, by enacting a rebuttable presumption,
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."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Block,
Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero,
Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Eng,
Feuer, Fong, Furutani, Galgiani, Hall, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jones, Lieu, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, V. Manuel Perez,
Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Solorio,
Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee,
Conway, Cook, DeVore, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick, Gatto,
Gilmore, Hagman, Harkey, Jeffries, Knight, Logue, Miller,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, Silva, Smyth, Audra
Strickland, Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Charles Calderon, Evans, Fletcher,
Fuentes, Torrico, Vacancy
DLW:do 7/2/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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