BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2058 HEARING DATE: 6/19/12
AUTHOR: PAN ANALYSIS BY: D. CHESIN
AMENDED: 5/17/12
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voter registration: paid registration activities
DESCRIPTION
Existing law establishes penalties for fraudulent activity
related to voter registration.
Existing law authorizes any person, company, or other
organization that complies with specified conditions to pay
money or other valuable consideration, on a per-affidavit
basis or otherwise, to any person who assists another
person to register to vote by receiving the completed
affidavit of registration.
This bill would prohibit any person, company, or other
organization from agreeing to pay money or other valuable
consideration on a per-affidavit basis to any person who
assists another person to register to vote by receiving the
completed affidavit of registration and would prohibit the
receipt of this per-affidavit consideration. A violation
of these prohibitions would constitute a misdemeanor.
This bill states that it shall not be construed to prohibit
payment for assisting another person to register to vote by
receiving the completed affidavit which is not, either
directly or indirectly, on a per-affidavit basis.
This bill also makes conforming changes to other related
code sections.
BACKGROUND
Voter Registration Fraud . According to the Secretary of
State's Election Fraud Investigation Unit (EFIU) between
1994 and 2010 the EFIU opened 960 cases for fraudulent
voter registration or fraudulently altering party
affiliation on voter registration cards. Out of these, 99
were referred to district attorneys for prosecution
resulting in 64 convictions.
As recently as 2010, the Orange County registrar of voters
and other county elections officials have received hundreds
of complaints from voters who were re-registered with a
political party without their permission. According to
press reports, the companies in charge of these
registration drives have paid workers as much as $8-$10 for
every completed voter registration card.
Voter Registration Fraud : While some voter registration
drives pay employees on an hourly or salaried basis, other
voter registration drives pay workers a specified amount of
money for each completed voter registration card. In some
cases, voter registration drives that pay workers on a
per-registration basis only pay workers for voters who
register with a specific political party, or pay the
workers a larger amount of money for voters who register
with a specific political party. While these
per-registration payments may create incentives to register
voters with a particular political party, they also may
create financial incentives for the individuals who are
registering voters to commit fraud.
In each of the last four election cycles, complaints have
been filed by voters who said they were misled into
changing their party affiliations. According to media
reports of these complaints, the voter registration workers
who were accused of misleading these voters were paid as
much as $15 for each new voter that the worker registered
with a particular political party.
In 2006, complaints were reported in Orange, Riverside, and
San Bernardino Counties. According to the Orange County
Register, 11 individuals were eventually convicted of
falsifying voter registrations and other charges in
connection with the complaints in Orange County, and eight
of those 11 served jail time. In 2008, press reports
focused on similar complaints in Los Angeles, Riverside,
San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties; in 2010, complaints
were filed in Orange and Sacramento Counties. Most
recently, similar accusations were brought to light again
in Sacramento County this year. In every instance, media
reports of the complaints indicated that the firms that
were conducting the voter registration drives or the
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individuals who were registering voters as part of those
drives were being paid on a per-registration basis.
According to the Secretary of State's EFIU, between 1994
and 2010, the EFIU opened 960 cases for fraudulent voter
registration or fraudulently altering party affiliation on
voter registration cards. Out of these, 99 were referred
to district attorneys for prosecution, resulting in 64
convictions. Since the EFIU was created in 1994, it has
opened more cases, and a larger number of convictions have
been obtained, for voter registration fraud than for any
other election crime.
Other States : At least 11 states (Colorado, Florida,
Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin) have laws
prohibiting payments for registering voters if those
payments are based on the number of registrations obtained.
Ohio similarly had a law that prohibited payments for
registering voters if those payments were based on anything
other than time worked. Ohio's law also prohibited
payments for collecting signatures on election petitions if
the payments were based on anything other than time worked.
The Ohio law was struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals in Citizens for Tax Reform et al. v. Deters et al.
(2008), 518 F.3d 375. However, while the Court struck down
the entire Ohio law, including the provisions regarding
payments for registering voters, the Court's decision
focused on the portion of the law governing payments for
collecting signatures on petitions, and did not include
substantive discussion about the restrictions on payments
for voter registration.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author , every year we hear of county
election officials receiving reports of organized voter
registration fraud taking place. Most recently in
Sacramento County, Jill LaVine, Sacramento County's
Registrar of Voters, stated that 25 percent of the
31,000 cards submitted by Momentum Political Services
have been rejected for inaccuracies. LaVine reported
that her office found "numerous" examples of voters
having their political party affiliation switched to
"Republican" against their wishes. This and many other
similar reports have taken place all over California.
By prohibiting "Bounty Hunters" from paying individuals
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to register voters on a per-affidavit basis we eliminate
the incentive for fraud.
2.Prior Legislation : SB 205 (Correa) of 2011, which was
identical to this bill, was vetoed by Governor Brown. In
his veto message, the Governor stated, in part:
"I understand the author's desire to stop fraudulent voter
registration. But I don't believe this bill, which makes
it a crime to pay people for registering voters based on
the number of registrations they secure, will help.
Voting is at the heart of our democracy. Efforts to
register voters should be encouraged, not criminalized."
SB 812 (Correa) of 2007 was similar to this bill but was
eventually amended and used for an unrelated purpose.
AB 2946 (Leno) of 2006 would have prohibited the payment of
an individual to register voters if that payment was on a
per-affidavit basis, among other provisions. AB 2946 was
vetoed by the Governor, though his veto message focused
on other parts of that bill, and did not address the
provisions of the bill that would have prohibited
per-affidavit payments for registering voters.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Transportation Committee:11-0
Assembly Floor: 73-0
Note : This bill was completely rewritten in the Senate
therefore these votes do not reflect the current version of
this bill.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
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