BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1357 HEARING DATE: 6/21/11
AUTHOR: SWANSON ANALYSIS BY: FRAN
TIBON-ESTOISTA
AMENDED: 6/2/11
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Voter registration
DESCRIPTION
Existing law declares the intent of the Legislature that
voter registration be maintained at a high level.
Existing law requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to adopt
regulations to prescribe a form of the affidavit of
registration, and requires the affidavit to contain
specific information.
Existing law requires the affidavit of registration be
included on one portion of a multipart card, to be known as
a voter registration card, the other portions of which
shall include information sufficient to facilitate
completion and mailing of the affidavit.
Existing law requires the county elections official to
provide voter registration cards for the registration of
voters at his or her office and in a sufficient number of
locations throughout the county for the convenience of
persons desiring to register, to the end that registration
be maintained at a high level.
This bill declares the intent of the Legislature that
county elections officials be permitted to distribute
affidavits of registration and voter registration cards, in
all languages required under the federal Voting Rights Act
of 1965, by using the county's Internet web site.
This bill provides that nothing shall prevent the lawful
use of a paper affidavit of registration form provided on a
county's Internet web site, provided that it is in a form
prescribed by the SOS and meets specific requirements in
current law that govern affidavits of registration.
This bill requires voter registration cards provided by the
county elections official at his or her office and in
locations throughout the county to be available in all
languages required under the federal Voting Rights Act of
1965.
This bill permits the county elections official, in
addition to providing voter registration cards in his or
her office and in locations throughout the county, to
provide forms on the county's Internet Web site, provided
that the county offered the form on the county's Internet
Web site on or before January 1, 2012 and the affidavit
meets the specific requirements in current law, until the
SOS makes affidavits of registration available.
This bill requires the SOS in consultation with county
elections officials, to design and make available on his or
her Internet Web site an affidavit of registration. The
affidavit shall contain information specified in current
law that govern affidavits of registration and in addition
shall:
1) Be numbered according to regulations adopted by the
SOS.
2) Contain, in a type size that is clearly
distinguishable from surrounding text, a statement
identical or substantially similar to the following:
"Certain voters facing life-threatening situations may
qualify for confidential voter status. For more
information, please contact the Secretary of State's
Safe At Home program or visit the Secretary of State's
Web site."
3) Contain, in a type size that is clearly
distinguishable from surrounding text, a statement that
the use of voter registration information for
commercial purposes is a misdemeanor pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 2194, and any suspected
misuse shall be reported to the SOS.
4) Contain a toll-free fraud hotline telephone number
maintained by the Secretary of State that the public
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may use to report suspected fraudulent activity
concerning misuse of voter registration information.
5) Be returnable to the county elections official.
This bill requires that affidavits of registration provided
on the Internet Web site of a county or of the SOS be for
individual use only and not for use by organizations
seeking to register people to vote.
This bill provides in addition to providing voter
registration cards in his or her office, the county
elections official may provide cards on the county's
Internet Web site for voters to print, complete, sign, and
return to the county elections office.
This bill requires all cards provided online to be
available in all languages required under the federal
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This bill makes other conforming changes.
BACKGROUND
Current Use of Online Forms : The SOS currently provides
voter registration forms on her Internet web site; however,
that form is a federal voter registration form, which does
not contain much of the information contained on the state
voter registration form, which is helpful for county data
collection.
Current law prescribes the paper size, weight, and color of
voter registration forms, which precludes online forms from
being accepted. Some counties currently provide state
voter registration forms online; however, because current
law does not explicitly authorize the use of online forms,
many counties have been hesitant to provide this means of
voter registration.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : AB 1357 is an important
cost saving measure that will allow the creation and
use of online voter registration �forms] in California.
Currently, California uses the federal online voter
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registration form but it is missing critical
information that is required by California Elections
Code. There will be cost savings since election
officials will not have to follow-up with the voter to
complete the information required under California law.
Also, since many voters have been using the incomplete
federal form, it will help election officials process
the voter's affidavit timely, especially critical
during the 15-day closing period.
In 2010 Sacramento County received 5,856 new
registrations on federal forms. These forms must be
hand entered into the system, which doubles the
processing time compared to the state form.
The registering voter will still have to print, complete,
and mail the form as current law requires.
2. Benefits of the Internet : Under current law county
elections officials are required to take several steps
to encourage and promote voter registration. However,
counties are only authorized to provide voter
registration cards in their offices and other locations
throughout the county, which may be inconvenient for
voters, restricted to regular business hours, or may
not have all the required languages available. This
bill will allow a voter access to voter registration
forms in the required languages via the county's
Internet web site, which can be viewed 24-hours a day,
seven days a week.
In addition, providing forms online will allow voters to
complete their affidavits via computer, as opposed to
filling it out manually, provided that they still sign
the affidavit before turning it in. The use of
computers to fill out voter registration forms is
likely to benefit county elections officials by
resulting in more legible forms, which may speed up the
data entry process, ensure more accurate information on
the voter registration database, and enable counties to
enter voter registration information quicker during
peak registration periods.
PRIOR ACTION
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Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Floor: 70-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials
Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
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