BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 646 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 646 (McCarty) - As Amended March 26, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Elections and Redistricting |Vote:|6 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This bill provides that a voter's registration forwarded to a county elections official by a different county elections official is effective for all elections occurring 15 or more AB 646 Page 2 days, as opposed to 29 or more days, after receipt by the county elections official of the mailed or delivered affidavit of registration. FISCAL EFFECT: Negligible fiscal impact, as the bill is consistent with current practice in most counties. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. AB 1094 (Hertzberg)/Chapter 899, Statutes of 2000, moved up the voter registration deadline from 29 days prior to an election to 15 days prior to an election. However, that bill did not make the corresponding changes to sections of the law that deal with affidavits of registration that are received by the wrong county and forwarded to the elections official in the voter's county of residence. AB 646 makes this conforming change. 2)Prior Legislation. AB 1201 (Fong) of 2011, an identical bill, passed the Assembly but was never heard in Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 AB 646 Page 3