Senate Bill No. 1105

Introduced by Senator Liu

February 19, 2014

An act to amend Section 69433 of the Education Code, relating to voter registration.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1105, as introduced, Liu. Voter registration: Cal Grant Program application.

Under existing law, operative when the Secretary of State certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database that complies with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 or executes a declaration stating that certain conditions have occurred, a person who is qualified to register to vote and who has a valid California driver’s license or state identification card is authorized to submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State.

Existing law establishes various student financial aid programs under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law requires the commission to authorize the use of standardized student financial aid application forms and requires these forms to be used for the Cal Grant Program and all other programs funded by the state or a public institution of postsecondary education.

This bill would require the standardized student financial aid application, if the application is submitted online, to permit the applicant to apply to register to vote online by submitting an affidavit of registration electronically on the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 69433 of the Education Code is amended
to read:

69433.  

(a) (1) A Cal Grant Program award shall be based
upon the financial need of the applicant, and shall not exceed the
calculated financial need for any individual applicant. The
minimum level of financial need of each applicant shall be
determined by the commission pursuant to Section 69432.9. The
commission may provide renewal awards.

(2) A student attending a nonpublic institution shall receive a
renewal award for tuition or fees, or both, in an amount not to
exceed the maximum allowable award amount that was in effect
in the year in which the student first received a new award.

(b) A Cal Grant award authorized pursuant to this chapter shall
be defined as a full-time equivalent grant. An award to a part-time
student shall be a fraction of a full-time grant, as determined by
the commission.

(c) (1) The commission shall prescribe the use of standardized
student financial aid applications for California. These applications
shall be simple in nature, and collect common data elements
required by the federal government and those elements needed to
meet the objectives of state-funded and institutional financial aid
programs. begin insert If an application is submitted online, the application
shall permit the applicant to apply to register to vote online by
submitting an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the
Internet Web site of the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 2196
of the Elections Code. end insert

(2) The applications prescribed in paragraph (1) shall be begin delete utilized end delete
begin insert used end insert for the Cal Grant Program, all other programs funded by the
state or a public institution of postsecondary education (except for
the Financial Assistance Program of the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges authorized by Chapter 1118
of the Statutes of 1987, for which a simplified application designed
for that sole purpose may be used), and all federal programs
administered by a public postsecondary education institution.

(3) Supplemental application information may be begin delete utilized end delete begin insert used end insert
if the information is essential to accomplishing the objectives of
individual programs. All supplemental application information
used for the purposes of commission-administered programs shall
be subject to approval by the commission, and applications shall
be identical for programs with similar objectives, as determined
by the commission.

(4) Public postsecondary institutions are encouraged to use, but
may decide whether to use, the standard applications for funds
provided by private donors.

(5) The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the best
interest of students that all postsecondary education institutions in
California participating in federal and state-funded financial aid
programs accept the standard applications prescribed by the
commission.

(d) Nothing in this chapter shall prevent an individual public
postsecondary institution from processing, with its own staff and
fiscal resources, the standard financial aid applications specified
in subdivision (c) for student aid programs for which it has legal
responsibility.

(e) The commission may enter into contracts with a public
agency or a private entity to improve the processing and
distribution of grants, fellowships, and loans through the use of
electronic networks and unified begin delete data bases end delete begin insert databases end insert .