BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 1020


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          Date of Hearing:  May 13, 2015


                  ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING


                           Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair


          AB 1020  
          (Ridley-Thomas) - As Introduced February 26, 2015


          SUBJECT:  Elections:  voter registration.


          SUMMARY:  Requires, when a voter reregisters or transfers his or  
          her registration from one precinct to another, for the voter's  
          address to be updated and the voter's former address to be  
          maintained with the voter's registration record.


          EXISTING LAW:  


          1)Requires an elections official, when a voter reregisters or  
            transfers his or her registration from one precinct to  
            another, to enter the voter's former address in the prior  
            registration portion of the voter registration affidavit, and  
            to cancel the voter's former registration.


          2)Requires each state, pursuant to the federal Help America Vote  
            Act of 2002 (HAVA), to implement a single, uniform, official,  
            centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter  
            registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the  
            state level that contains the name and registration  









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            information of every legally registered voter in the state and  
            assigns a unique identifier to each legally registered voter  
            in the state.  


          FISCAL EFFECT:  None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the  
          Legislative Counsel.


          COMMENTS:  


          1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:


               California is in the process of developing a new  
               statewide voter registration system in order to fully  
               comply with requirements in federal law. The new  
               system, which is known as VoteCal, is currently on  
               track for full implementation in 2016. While  
               California must develop a statewide voter database  
               pursuant to federal law, multiple state statutes must  
               be changed to conform to federal requirements.



               AB 1020 will ensure that the federally mandated  
               VoteCal statewide voter registration database can be  
               implemented effectively by updating key Elections Code  
               statutes and deleting obsolete provisions.
          2)VoteCal and HAVA Requirements:  On October 29, 2002, President  
            George W. Bush signed HAVA. Enacted partially in response to  
            the 2000 Presidential election, HAVA was designed to improve  
            the administration of federal elections. Among other  
            provisions, HAVA requires every state to implement a  
            computerized statewide voter registration list maintained at  
            the state level. This statewide voter registration list will  









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            serve as the official list of eligible voters for any federal  
            election held within the state. 



          At the time HAVA was approved, California was already using a  
            statewide voter registration system, known as Calvoter, which  
            achieved some of the goals of the voter registration list  
            required by HAVA. However, Calvoter did not satisfy many of  
            the requirements in that law, including requirements that the  
            database be fully interactive and have the capability of  
            storing a complete voter registration history for every voter.  
            Discussions between the United States Department of Justice  
            and the Secretary of State (SOS) led to the adoption of a  
            memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the two parties. In that  
            MOA, the SOS committed to further upgrades to the Calvoter  
            system to achieve short term interim compliance with the  
            requirements of HAVA, and to complete development and  
            implementation of a longer term solution for replacing the  
            Calvoter system with a new permanent statewide voter  
            registration system. That new permanent system is commonly  
            known as VoteCal.

          After a number of delays, the VoteCal system is being developed  
            and is currently in testing.  The system is scheduled to be  
            rolled out to five counties this July as a pilot, and if  
            VoteCal is operating as anticipated, it will then be deployed  
            to the remaining 53 counties in six waves between October 2015  
            and March 2016.  After the final wave is completed, the SOS  
            will certify VoteCal as the system of record for voter  
            registration information in California.  The current project  
            schedule provides for that certification to occur by June  
            2016.

          The implementation of VoteCal will help streamline the voter  
            registration process, including allowing voters to update  
            their voter registration records seamlessly when they update  









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            their address with the Department of Motor Vehicles or with  
            the state's Employment Development Department. VoteCal will  
            also make it easier and more efficient for elections officials  
            to do "list maintenance," including identifying and  
            eliminating duplicate registrations, transferring a voter's  
            record from one county to another when the voter moves, and  
            canceling the registrations of individuals who are no longer  
            eligible to vote.

          As noted above, one of the HAVA requirements that the Calvoter  
            system did not satisfy was a requirement that the state voter  
            registration database have the capability of storing a  
            complete voter registration history for every voter.  This  
            bill updates California law to ensure that when a California  
            voter reregisters or transfers his or her registration from  
            one precinct to another that the voter's registration history  
            is maintained and updated in the state voter registration  
            database, rather than requiring a voter's prior registration  
            to be canceled.  This change will ensure that the state's  
            statutory processes for maintaining voter registration records  
            is consistent with federal law and with the design of the  
            VoteCal system.

          Since the procurement process for VoteCal began, a number of  
            bills have been enacted that are tied to the implementation of  
            the VoteCal system.  Specifically, legislation to authorize  
            election day voter registration (AB 1436 (Feuer), Chapter 497,  
            Statutes of 2012), to allow for preregistration of 16- and  
            17-year-olds (AB 30 (Price), Chapter 364, Statutes of 2009 and  
            SB 113 (Jackson), Chapter 619, Statutes of 2014), and to allow  
            for voters to opt to receive certain election materials  
            electronically (AB 306 (Fuller), Chapter 98, Statutes of 2009  
            and SB 1253 (Steinberg), Chapter 697, Statutes of 2014) all  
            will not go into effect until after the SOS certifies that the  
            VoteCal system is operational.  Additionally, AB 1461  
            (Gonzalez) of the current legislative session, which provides  
            for every person who has a driver's license or state  









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            identification card and who is eligible to register to vote to  
            be automatically registered to vote, unless that person opts  
            out, as specified, was amended in this committee to provide  
            that voters would not be registered to vote pursuant to the  
            provisions of that bill until after VoteCal is operational.
          REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:




          Support


          Secretary of State Alex Padilla (sponsor)




          Opposition


          None on file.




          Analysis Prepared by:Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094



















                                                                    AB 1020


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