BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2275
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Richard Pan, Chair
AB 2275 (Ridley-Thomas) - As Amended: April 10, 2014
SUBJECT : Certified copies of marriage, birth, and death
certificates: electronic application.
SUMMARY : Authorizes the State Registrar, or a local registrar
or county recorder to accept electronic acknowledgment, sworn
under penalty of perjury, that the requester of a marriage,
birth, or death certificate is an authorized person.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the State Registrar, or a local registrar or county
recorder to accept electronic acknowledgment, sworn under
penalty of perjury, that the requester of a marriage, birth,
or death certificate is an authorized person.
2)Requires, if the request is accepted electronically, the
request process provide a method for the official to establish
the identity of the requester electronically.
3)Requires the method established to process electronic requests
and establish the requester's identity to comply with the
provisions of the California Uniform Electronic Transactions
Act (Act) and all other applicable state and federal laws and
regulations to protect the personal information of the
requester and guard against identity theft.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the State Registrar of Vital Statistics (the Director
of the Department of Public Health), a local registrar, or a
county recorder, upon payment of a required fee, to supply
applicants a certified copy of birth, fetal death, death,
marriage, or divorce records.
2)Allows the State Registrar, local registrar, or county
recorder to furnish a certified copy of birth, death, or
marriage records to applicants upon request if:
a) The request is written or faxed and accompanied by a
notarized statement, sworn under penalty of perjury, that
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the requester is an "authorized person"; or,
b) The request is made in person, and the official takes a
statement, sworn under penalty of perjury, that the
requester is signing his or her own legal name and is an
"authorized person".
3)Allows for digitized images of a request for a certified copy
of a birth, death, or marriage record.
4)Defines digitized image as an image of an original paper
request for a certified copy of a birth, death, or marriage
record.
5)Requires a notary, prior to notarizing a document, to obtain
satisfactory evidence of the identity of the person signing
the document. This evidence can include any of the following:
a) The oath of a witness who is personally known to the
notary, as specified;
b) The oath of two witnesses who prove their identities
with a current passport or identification card, as
specified; or,
c) Presentation of a current passport or identification
card, as specified.
6)Defines "authorized person," for purposes of obtaining
certified copies of birth, death, or nonconfidential marriage
records, as any of the following:
a) The person who is the subject of the record or the parent
or legal guardian of that person;
b) A party who is entitled to receive the record as a
result of a court order, or certain parties associated with
an adoption;
c) Law enforcement or governmental agency personnel
conducting official business;
d) A child, grandchild, sibling, spouse, domestic partner,
or grandparent of the person who is the subject of the
record;
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e) An attorney or other person empowered to act on behalf
of the person who is the subject of the record or his or
her estate; or,
f) An agent or employee of a funeral establishment who
orders death certificates when acting on behalf of
specified individuals.
7)Requires all applicants who are not "authorized persons" to be
provided with an informational certified copy that states,
"INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY".
8)Requires applicants for birth or death records to pay a fee.
In addition to this fee, requires applicants for birth, death,
or marriage records to pay an additional $1 fee, which
provides funding for:
a) The development of safety and security measures to
protect against fraudulent use of vital records; and,
b) The cost of additional security features that local
registrars and county recorders are required to implement.
9)Establishes the Act which, among other things, provides that
if a law requires that a signature be notarized, the
requirement is satisfied with respect to an electronic
signature if an electronic record includes, in addition to the
electronic signature to be notarized, the electronic signature
of a notary public together with all other information
required to be included in a notarization.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal
committee.
COMMENTS :
1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the author, a person
requesting a certified copy of a vital record online must
complete their request offline by separately executing a
notarized affidavit of identity with a notary. The online
request is not processed until the requestor mails or hand
delivers the notarized affidavit to the Registrar's office.
The current process presents challenges for persons who do not
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have ready access to a notary or who lack formal
identification. This includes persons who may reside
overseas, are in the military, or do not have a valid driver's
license or identification (e.g. indigent or homeless
customers).
2)BACKGROUND . Access to birth, death, and marriage certificates
is important for all Californians. Without a valid birth
certificate a child cannot be registered for school, sign up
to play Little League, or apply for a passport. A birth
certificate allows a person to obtain an identification card,
drivers' license, apply for public benefits, and receive
financial aid for school. A death certificate is the official
legal record of death. It includes information about the
person who died and about their cause of death. Insurance
companies, the Social Security Administration, and other
agencies may request certified copies of the death certificate
as proof of death. Marriage certificates are often required
when spouses want to insure one another.
3)SUPPORT . The County of Los Angeles is the sponsor of this
bill and writes that in 2012, the County's Registrar received
more than 64,000 online requests for vital records, which
accounted for 22% of all requests for vital records that year.
The County states that for every one of these requests the
individual had to separately complete an affidavit of identity
with a notary, even though in 2013, AB 464 (Daly), Chapter 78,
Statutes of 2013, took the first step in allowing persons to
make part of their request for copies of vital records online.
The County further states that the current process is
increasingly out of step with trends to increase access to
vital government services through online technologies and that
this bill will streamline the request process by allowing
people the option to complete their request online without the
need to send a separate notarized affidavit.
The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
supports this bill, writing that while current law allows for
electronic notarization there are no notaries in California
who are offering this service and other online technologies
offer methods to establish and verify a person's identity
electronically.
Reed Elsevier/LexisNexis supports this bill stating that there
are currently only two states which require a notarized
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statement in conjunction with an online request, California
and Minnesota, and that this bill will stream-line access to
records and lower costs. Reed Elsevier further notes that
Cook County, Illinois has been using electronic notification
for vital records requests for about eight years and New York
City for seven years.
4)PREVIOUS LEGISLATION . AB 464 (Daly) allows for requests of
birth, death, and marriage certificates using digitized
images, requires the use of a specified form for the
acknowledgement of an instrument, and allows an informational
copy of a death certificate to be used to prove the death of a
person for real property transfer purposes.
5)POLICY COMMENTS . California's Constitution contains a
specific right to privacy, and because of this the Legislature
has seen fit to provide additional levels of privacy for
Californians, for example, in the areas of medical and
financial privacy. Because of the wealth of personal and
private information contained on the birth certificate and the
fact that it can be used to obtain many other important
documents such as passports and identification cards, the
author is encouraged to work with stakeholders to ensure the
process allowed by this bill has sufficient protections in
place to protect personal information and prevent identity
theft.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County of Los Angeles (sponsor)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
Aspiranet
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
Reed Elsevier/LexisNexis
TransUnion
Urban Counties Caucus
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by : Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097