BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1063
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 1063 (Block) - As Amended: June 12, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 21-12
SUBJECT : Voter registration: juvenile detention facilities.
SUMMARY : Requires state and local juvenile detention
facilities, as specified, to identify individuals housed in
those facilities who are of age to register to vote and not
currently serving a sentence for a conviction of a felony, and
to provide and assist in completing affidavits of registration
and returning the completed voter registration cards, as
specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a state or local juvenile detention facility,
including, but not limited to, a juvenile hall, juvenile
ranch, juvenile camp, or a facility of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Division
of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to do all of the following:
a) Identify each individual housed in the facility that is
of age to register to vote and not currently serving a
sentence for a conviction of a felony.
b) Provide an affidavit of registration to each individual
housed in the facility who is of age to register to vote
and not currently serving a sentence for a conviction of a
felony by doing either of the following:
i) Providing the individual a paper affidavit of
registration; or,
ii) Directing the individual to an affidavit of
registration provided on the Internet Web site of the
Secretary of State (SOS).
c) Assist each individual in the facility that is of age to
register to vote and not currently serving a sentence for a
conviction of a felony with the completion of an affidavit
of registration, unless the individual declines assistance.
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2)Requires a facility providing paper affidavits of registration
to do either of the following:
a) Assist the individual who completed the voter
registration card in returning the completed card to the
county elections official; or
b) Accept any completed voter registration card and
transmit the card to the county elections official.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that in order to be eligible to vote, an individual
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.
2)Requires the election board of each county, in order to
promote and encourage voter registration, to establish a
sufficient number of registration places throughout the
county, and outside the county courthouse, for the convenience
of a person desiring to register to vote.
3)Requires the SOS to adopt regulations requiring each county to
design and implement programs to identify qualified
individuals who are not registered voters and to register
those individuals to vote.
4)Requires each county probation department to establish a
hyperlink on its Internet Web site to the SOS voting rights
guide for incarcerated persons, or to post a notice that
contains the SOS Internet Web site address where the voting
rights guide can be found.
5)Requires the facility administrator of a local detention
facility to develop written policies and procedures whereby
the county registrar of voters allows qualified voters to vote
in local, state, and federal elections.
6)Requires the county elections official to cancel the voter
registration of a person upon proof that the person is
presently imprisoned or on parole for conviction of a felony.
7)Requires the clerk of the superior court of each county to
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notify the county elections official twice a year of those
persons that have been convicted of a felony since the clerk's
last report.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, unknown, potentially significant reimbursable mandate
costs to local detention facilities (General Fund) and minor
costs to the CDCR. (General Fund)
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
SB 1063 will direct juvenile detention centers to identify
incarcerated youth who are of age to register to vote,
provide them with an electronic or paper affidavit of
registration, assist with the completion of registration
cards, and accept and transmit, or assist the individual in
the transmission of, completed voter registration cards to
local elections officials.
Juvenile detention and correction facilities in California
housed 11,532 individuals under the age of 21 in 2010. The
United States locks up more juveniles than any other
industrialized country and California ranks among the top
twelve states for rates of juvenile incarceration.
Additionally, California has a voter turn-out problem that
ranks it 48th among the states in voting participation.
Currently, nearly one quarter of California's eligible
voters are not registered.
The use of governmental agencies to register citizens to
vote is not unprecedented. Section 7 of the National Voter
Registration Act (NVRA) requires public assistance
agencies, particularly those that serve low-income or
disabled populations, to provide voter registration
materials. NVRA voter registration agencies include county
welfare department offices, which accept applications and
administer benefits for CalFresh, CalWorks, Medi-Cal, and
other state programs. Yet none of these agencies have the
ability to specifically target youth.
SB 1063 encourages civic participation amongst a
hard-to-reach population while simultaneously addressing
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low youth voter turnout. Additionally, productive
participation in society, such as voting, reduces
recidivism.
2)Facilitating Voter Registration : According to statistics from
the SOS's website and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change,
currently there are over six million eligible voters in the
state that remain unregistered to vote. Slightly less than
half of the state's eligible voters between the age of 18 and
24 are registered to vote. Consequently, efforts to encourage
and improve voter registration have been a focus of
legislative proposals over past legislative sessions.
This bill focuses on a specific sector of the
electorate-currently incarcerated youth-and requires a state
and local juvenile detention facility to identify individuals
housed in their facilities who are of age to register to vote
and not currently serving a sentence for a conviction of a
felony, to provide and assist in completing an affidavit of
registration, and to return or transmit the completed
registration cards to the county elections official, as
specified.
On the local level, existing law requires the facility
administrator of each local detention facility to adopt
written policies and procedures whereby the county registrar
of voters allows those qualified voters in the detention
facility to vote. Despite the fact that these procedures are
adopted at each facility and therefore may not result in
uniformity across the state, they are currently in place and
provide inmates at the detention facility with information
regarding their voting rights. Additionally, last year the
Legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 149 (Weber),
Chapter 580, Statutes of 2013, which requires a county
probation department to either establish a hyperlink on its
Internet Web site to the SOS's voting rights guide for
incarcerated persons, or to post a notice that contains the
SOS Internet Web site address where the voting rights guide
can be found
Additionally, on the state level, the CDCR DJJ has a policy in
place pertaining to voting which requires the DJJ to advise
eligible wards that are 18 years of age and over of their
right to register and vote, provide voter registration forms
obtained from the county clerks, assist the ward in completing
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the voter registration form, and ensure that eligible voters
are provided with the ballot, as specified.
Given that the CDCR DJJ already has processes in place that
are very similar to the requirements in this bill, the
provisions of this bill may be duplicative or unnecessary.
However, on the local level, this bill may take the processes
they have in place a step further and require local facilities
to not only provide eligible voters information on their
voting rights, but to also provide an affidavit of
registration, as specified, assist in completing the affidavit
of registration, and returning or transmitting completed
affidavits of registration to the county elections officials,
as specified.
3)States and Felon Disenfranchisement : According to the
Sentencing Project's 2012 report entitled "State-Level
Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States,
2010," 48 states prohibit inmates from voting while
incarcerated for felony offense. Only Maine and Vermont
permit inmates who are incarcerated for a felony offense to
vote. California is one of 35 states that prohibits felons
from voting while they are on parole, and is one of 18 states
that allows people on probation for a felony to vote.
Individuals imprisoned in the county jail for misdemeanor
offenses are eligible to vote in California. Furthermore,
once an individual completes his or her term of imprisonment
and any period of parole for a felony conviction, that person
is allowed to register to vote again in California.
According to the author, this bill encourages civic
participation amongst a hard-to-reach population while
simultaneously addressing low youth voter turnout. Juvenile
detention and correction facilities in California housed
11,532 individuals under the age of 21 in 2010. Current law
provides that if an individual is incarcerated for a
misdemeanor offense he or she is eligible to vote in
California. This bill will ensure incarcerated youths that
are eligible to register and vote not only receive information
on their voting rights, but are also provided with assistance
in completing an affidavit of registration and transmitting it
to the appropriate elections official. Codifying these
practices will help increase voter registration and turnout
amongst a hard to reach population of eligible youth voters.
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4)Arguments in Support : The American Civil Liberties Union of
California writes in support:
As of 2012, California's voter registration rate ranked
forty fifth in the nation. Presently, 6.4 million eligible
voters in the state remain unregistered to vote, including
barely half of eligible voters between the age of 18 and
24. Among the millions of unregistered voters in
California are people who often mistakenly believe they are
ineligible to voter due to a criminal charge or conviction.
SB 1063 will help facilitate the dissemination of
information to people who may have questions about their
eligibility to vote.
Additionally, voting is often correlated to successful
re-entry and the reduced likelihood of re-offense. Voting
creates a greater sense of citizenship, participation, and
ultimately a vested interest in achieving the overall goals
of the community?
If returning offenders see themselves as productive members
of society, and are able to have input on policies
affecting the entire community, this will have a noticeable
impact on recidivism. Hence, juvenile detention facilities
should identify potentially eligible voters housed in their
facilities and give them the opportunity to register to
vote.
5)Previous Legislation : AB 149 (Weber), Chapter 580, Statutes of
2013, required each county probation department to provide
voting rights information for incarcerated persons.
Specifically, AB 149 required each county department to either
establish a hyperlink on its Internet Web site to the SOS's
voting rights guide for incarcerated persons, or to post a
notice that contains the SOS Internet Web site address where
the voting rights guide can be found.
AB 821 (Ridley-Thomas) of 2005, would have required county
elections officials to provide affidavits of registration and
copies of the "Guide to Inmate Voting" to state and local
detention facilities so that those detention facilities could
notify specified individuals of their right to vote. AB 821
failed passage in the Senate Elections & Constitutional
Amendments Committee.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Civil Liberties Union of California
A New PATH
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay
Area
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
Opposition
Department of Finance
Analysis Prepared by : Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094