BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: SB 205 HEARING DATE:
3/15/11
AUTHOR: CORREA ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
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
Bounty Hunters . Individuals who are paid to register
voters or to collect signatures on initiative, referendum,
or recall petitions are commonly referred to as "bounty
hunters." 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, Orange County 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.
Other States . At least five other states, including
Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin
prohibit paying voter registration "bounty hunters" on a
per affidavit basis.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author , we know that voting fraud
by voters is extremely rare; however, voter
registration fraud by bounty hunters is all too
common. Every election cycle yields another crop of
individuals who abuse our voter registration
regulations. Thousands of voters in California have
had their party affiliation tampered with, many of
them had their names forged, others were duped into
registering despite their ineligibility or unknowingly
switched parties, and many non-citizens have been
misled into registering to vote, and almost all of
this because of individuals who are paid, often in
cash, for voter registrations on a bounty system, or
per-affidavit.
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This bill will help eliminate the incentive to commit
this type of fraud by prohibiting payment to bounty
hunters on a per-affidavit basis.
2. Prior Legislation : 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-registration 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 bounty payments for
registering voters.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
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