BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 641
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 5, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 641 (Ron Calderon) - As Amended: May 31, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 21-14
SUBJECT : Voter registration.
SUMMARY : Allows a person to register to vote and vote at the
office of the county elections official at any time, including
on election day, if certain requirements are met. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Defines "conditional voter registration" as a properly
executed affidavit of registration which is delivered by the
registrant to the county elections official during the 14 days
immediately preceding an election or on election day and which
may be deemed effective after the elections official processes
the affidavit, determines the registrant's eligibility to
register, and validates the registrant's identification.
2)Permits an elector who is otherwise qualified to register to
vote, in addition to existing methods of voter registration,
to complete a conditional voter registration and cast a
provisional ballot during the 14 days immediately preceding an
election or on election day. Provides that conditional voter
registration shall be available at all permanent offices of
the county elections official in the county.
3)Provides that a conditional voter registration is effective
only if the county elections official is able to determine
before or during the canvass period for the election that the
registrant is able to register to vote and has provided at
least one form of identification deemed acceptable under the
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Provides that if the
registrant's eligibility cannot be validated before or during
the canvass period for the election, the conditional
registration shall be deemed to be not effective.
4)Requires elections officials to notify registrants that a
conditional voter registration will be effective only if the
registrant is determined to be eligible to register to vote
and if the registrant's identification can be validated before
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or during the canvass period for the election.
5)Requires elections officials to conduct the receipt and
handling of each conditional voter registration and
corresponding provisional ballot in a manner that protects the
secrecy of the ballot and allows the elections official to
process the registration, to determine the registrant's
eligibility to register, and to validate the registrant's
identification before counting or rejecting the corresponding
provisional ballot.
6)Provides that after receiving a conditional voter
registration, the elections official shall process the
registration, determine the registrant's eligibility to
register, and attempt to validate the identification.
7)Provides that if a conditional registration is deemed
effective, the elections officials shall include the
corresponding provisional ballot in the official canvass.
8)Provides that if a conditional voter registration is not
deemed effective, the elections official shall process the
affidavit of registration in the same way that an affidavit of
voter registration would otherwise be processed pursuant to
existing law.
9)Requires elections officials to cancel any duplicate voter
registrations that may exist as a result of a conditional
registration.
10)Requires elections officials, if it appears that a registrant
may have committed fraud, to notify in writing both the
district attorney and the Secretary of State.
11)Increases the fine that may be imposed for a felony
conviction of an election crime, for which no other penalty is
prescribed by law, from $10,000 to $25,000.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows individuals who are eligible to vote to execute an
affidavit of voter registration up to 15 days prior to an
election.
2)Specifies that in order to be eligible to vote, an individual
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must be a United States citizen, a resident of California, not
in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony, not
deemed mentally incompetent, and at least 18 years of age at
the time of the next election.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, actual costs to establish a conditional voting
program are unknown, however, if every county incurred expenses
of only $10,000, the total costs would be $580,000 which would
be reimbursed from the General Fund as a local mandate.
Counties indicate that the increase in last minute voter
registration activity would necessitate additional labor,
overtime, computers, ballots, networks, and security. In
addition, counties may incur substantial staffing and overtime
costs in order to complete the processing of the increase in the
number of provisional ballots during the 28 day canvass period
after an election.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
One of the fundamental principles of our country is
that the people should have access to our systems of
democracy. However, the voter registration process is
often a barrier to that participation. SB 641 deletes
the arbitrary timelines which prevent eligible
citizens from voting in elections. The bill will
allow eligible citizens to register and vote up to and
including Election Day. This would be permitted only
at the county elections offices. California is ranked
41st out of 50 states in voter turnout. In 2006, only
76 percent of the voting-age population was
registered. Research has shown that election-day
registration can considerably boost voter turnout.
2)Election Day Registration : The concept of "same day"
registration and voting raises a number of issues that the
committee may wish to consider. Implementing procedures to
direct voters to the elections official's office are important
to the success of same day voting. In addition, elections
officials will need to make preparations to serve a
significantly larger number of voters in their offices on
election day. For instance, in Los Angeles County, if even
one-half of one percent of the eligible voters in the county
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attempted to register to vote and vote in the office of the
elections official on election day, the office would have to
process nearly 30,000 voters. Ensuring that elections
officials' offices have sufficient parking, voting equipment,
personnel, and ballots to handle the crowds on election day
could pose a significant challenge for many counties.
3)Other States : In all, 10 states and the District of Columbia
have some form of election day voter registration. Idaho,
Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin,
Wyoming, and Washington DC generally permit election day voter
registration at most or all elections, while Connecticut and
Rhode Island permit election day voter registration for
Presidential elections only. Six of these states (Idaho,
Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) and
Washington DC allow election day voter registration at the
polling place, while the other four states (Connecticut,
Maine, Montana, and Rhode Island) do not provide election day
registration at all polling places, and may require voters to
go to another specified location (often the office of the
local elections official) to register to vote on election day.
Last month, Maine's Governor signed a bill to eliminate election
day voter registration in that state. Groups that opposed the
bill have announced that they will collect signatures in an
attempt to overturn the bill through the state's referendum
process.
North Carolina permits "one-stop voting," whereby a person can
register to vote and immediately cast a ballot at certain
designated locations after the regular voter registration
deadline. However, North Carolina technically does not have
election day registration, because "one-stop voting" ends
three days before the election.
North Dakota has no voter registration requirement at all.
4)Potential Impacts in California : According to a study
conducted earlier this year by Dmos, a public policy research
and advocacy organization that often advocates for election
day registration, enacting election day registration in
California could increase overall turnout by 4.8%, with larger
increases in participation by voters aged 18 to 25, by voters
who had moved in the last six months, and by Latinos and
newly-naturalized citizens. The D5)mos study, however, was
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based on the assumption that voters would be allowed to
register to vote on election day at the polling place. The
study additionally notes that an election day voter
registration system that requires voters "to engage in
excessive travel on election day is not likely to facilitate
as many voters utilizing it as would a system allowing voters
to simply register and vote at their local polling place."
6)Proposition 52 : In November 2002, voters rejected Proposition
52, which would have allowed any eligible person with proper
identification and proof of residency to register to vote at
any polling place on election day. The measure failed,
garnering 40.9 percent of the vote statewide.
7)State Mandates : The 2011-2012 state budget that was approved
by the Legislature on June 28, 2011, suspended most existing
state-mandated local programs as a mechanism for cost savings.
Among the mandates that were suspended were a requirement for
counties to allow any voter to become a permanent vote by mail
(VBM) voter and a requirement for counties to tabulate VBM
ballots by precinct. In fact, the budget approved by the
Legislature suspended all six existing elections-related
mandates. The Committee may wish to consider whether it is
desirable to establish new election mandates on counties when
the Legislature has voted to suspend the existing election
mandates.
8)Arguments in Support : The California Nurses Association, in
support of this bill, writes, "SB 641?could increase
California's voter turnout rate by 5%. For voters aged 18 to
25 we could see a 9% increase, and over 7% higher for people
who have recently moved. The current deadline for registering
to vote or just updating your address is 15 days before
Election Day. Yet, news stories, ads, mail, and voter
outreach peaks in the last week before Election Day. One
reality should reflect the other. SB 641 would allow eligible
citizens to be able to register and vote on Election Day and
in the last two weeks leading up to Election Day."
9)Arguments in Opposition : In opposition to this bill, the
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
writes:
We strongly believe that this proposal should not be
put into practice until the Secretary of State's
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Office has fully implemented a functioning statewide
voter registration database that would guard against
voter fraud and protect the integrity of the election.
We also urge further discussion of the logistical
concerns which would trigger major cost increases for
county election officials.
At present, the current issues that remain with a
conditional voter registration and provisional voting
period in California relate to:
The lack of a fully functioning statewide
voter database, or VoteCal, puts the integrity of
the election at risk. State regulation prohibits
election officials from sending their full index
of registration to the Secretary of State during
the period following the 15-day close of
registration and continuing through the
completion of the 28-day canvass. Requiring
election officials to accept hundreds, if not
thousands, of conditional voter registrations
without the ability to validate the information
against a statewide database provides a greater
opportunity for voter fraud. There would be a
grave risk of duplicate voting and inaccurate
Rosters of Voters at the state's 24,000 polling
places. County election officials would simply
have no practical way to determine whether or not
a person was registered and voted in another
county until after the completion of the canvass
period.
The necessary logistics and lack of
funding required to manage the influx of voters.
States which have already adopted Election Day
registration experience a change in voter
behavior in which 10% to 20% of voters delay
registering to vote until Election Day. If this
same percentage of California's 17 million voters
registered or re-registered during a 14-day
period, counties would need to prepare for 1.7 to
3.4 million voters in their offices during this
time. Without a vast expansion of space, computer
terminals, additional voting materials, and
staffing within each of the state's 58 county
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election offices, officials would be unable to
serve voters adequately and would risk creating a
denial of service. During the 2008 presidential
general election, counties experienced an
unprecedented surge in early voting and voters
were forced to wait for hours in parking lots
where they were exposed to traffic and the
elements.?
In addition to risking denial of service, counties may
be unable to complete the canvass in the prescribed
28-day period. Provisional ballots are extremely
time-consuming to process and many counties do not
complete their canvass until the final day under
current circumstances. Adding 1.7 to 3.4 million
additional provisional ballots to the canvass period
will require vast additions of space, terminals, and
staff to complete the job. In view of the State's
extreme fiscal limitations, current failure to pay
existing election mandates and its refusal to
recognize recent mandates claimed by counties, there
is a low probability of funding this proposal.
1)Previous Legislation : This bill is similar to SB 1140 (Yee)
of 2010. SB 1140 was approved by this committee on a 5-2
vote, but was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee's
suspense file.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Nurses Association
Opposition
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California State Association of Counties
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
SB 641
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