Voter registration.

Existing law establishes procedures regarding the registration of voters. Under existing law, a person may not be registered to vote except by affidavit of registration, and a voter may not vote in an election unless his or her affidavit of registration is executed and received by the county elections official on or before the 15th day prior to the election. Existing law permits any registered voter to vote by a vote by mail ballot, and further permits any voter using a vote by mail ballot to vote the ballot at the office of the elections official beginning 29 days before the election. Existing law requires that the affidavit of registration show facts necessary to establish the affiant as an elector, as specified, and provides that if the affiant has not been issued a current and valid driver's license or social security number, he or she shall be provided a unique identification number for voter registration purposes. This bill would establish conditional voter registration, using an affidavit of registration, whereby a person would be permitted to register to vote after the 15th day prior to an election or on election day, and cast a provisional ballot to be counted if the conditional voter registration is deemed effective. This bill would provide that a conditional voter registration shall be deemed effective if the county elections official is able to determine before or during the canvass period for the election that the registrant is eligible to register to vote and that the registrant has provided information that matches specified state or federal databases. The bill would provide that if the information provided by the registrant cannot be verified by matching the information to those specified state or federal databases and the registrant is otherwise eligible to vote, the registrant shall be issued a unique identification number pursuant to the above-referenced provisions and the conditional voter registration shall be deemed effective. The bill would establish specific criminal and civil penalties for the commission of fraud in the execution of a conditional voter registration pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the county elections official to offer conditional voter registration and provisional voting at its permanent offices, and would permit the official to offer this registration and voting at satellite offices on election day, in accordance with specified procedures. The bill would also require the county elections official to cancel, as specified, duplicate voter registrations that may arise due to conditional voter registration. The above provisions of the bill would become operative on January 1 of the year following the year in which 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. Existing law provides that upon conviction for a crime pertaining to an election for which no fine is prescribed, the court may impose, in addition to any prescribed imprisonment, a fine on the offender of not more than $1,000 for a misdemeanor or $10,000 for a felony. This bill would increase the amount of that fine for a felony to $25,000. By creating a new crime and new duties for local elections officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.