BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1063
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Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1063 (Block) - As Amended: June 12, 2014
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires juvenile detention facilities to identify and
assist eligible individuals housed in those facilities in
registering to vote. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires state and local juvenile detention facilities,
including juvenile halls, ranches and camps or facilities of
the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to:
a) Identify each individual who is at least 18 and not
serving a sentence for conviction of a felony and provide a
paper voter registration form or direct the individuals to
registration via the Secretary of State's (SOS's) website.
b) Assist the individual with completing the registration,
unless the individual declines.
c) For paper registration forms, either assist the
individual in returning the completed form to county
elections officials or transmit the completed forms to
county elections officials.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Any additional costs to counties to register eligible
juveniles would be state reimbursable, but should be
relatively minor, and thus would not likely lead to any
significant mandate claim.
The number of juveniles that would be registered annually
statewide as a result of this bill would be relatively small.
SB 1063
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According to information in the Board of State and Community
Corrections "Juvenile Detention Profile Survey" for calendar
year 2013, average monthly bookings into county juvenile
facilities totaled about 5,300 or almost 64,000 annually.
However, this total does not account for individuals being
booked multiple times during the year. Moreover, according to
the report, only about 14% of the juveniles in detention on a
one-day snapshot were over 18 and thus eligible to register,
and any of this cohort convicted of a felony would not be
eligible to register. Finally, some eligible juveniles would
likely refuse registration.
2)Negligible fiscal impact to the state.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "Juvenile detention and
correction facilities in California housed 11,532 individuals
under the age of 21 in 2010? SB 1063 encourages civic
participation amongst a hard-to-reach population while
simultaneously addressing low youth voter turnout.
Additionally, productive participation in society, such as
voting, reduces recidivism."
CDCR's DJJ currently has a policy to advise eligible wards 18
and over of their right to register and vote, provide voter
registration forms, assist the ward in completing the voter
registration form, and ensure that eligible voters are
provided with the ballot, as specified. The DJJ is thus
generally in compliance with this bill's requirements.
At the local level, current 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.
Additionally, AB 149 (Weber)/Statutes of 2013, requires a
county probation department to either establish a link on its
website to the SOS's voting rights guide for incarcerated
persons, or to post a notice that contains the SOS website
address where the voting rights guide can be found.
SB 1063
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SB 1063 requires 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.
2)Opposition . The Secretary of State opposes the lack of a
provision requiring the voter registrations to be returned to
election officials within a specified time period, such as
five or 10 days, depending on the election date, as required
for public agencies designated as voter registration agencies
under the National Voter Registration Act. (Juvenile
facilities are not such agencies.)
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081