When given the chance at the California Department of Motor Vehicles, more than half of entitled but unregistered citizens choose to withdraw, which irritate grassroots administrators like Sacramento native Julius Thibodeaux-Hasan.
During vote times, Thibodeaux-Hasan spends day educating people of color about what’s at stake for them. What impact does a law or rule have on their protections? How did they propagate or worsen inequities and disqualification?
They do n’t realize that they have a voice and that they need to voice their opinions on issues that are happening in their communities, laws that are being passed, and laws that will affect them or their communities in ways that frequently have a negative impact. Thibodeaux-Hasan said.
As he explains the relevance and replies questions, he said, the light bulbs roll in. He claimed that these potential voters were unopposed to a structure that appeared to them as entirely disconnected, but several did so before leaving.
When Thibodeaux-Hasan said he learned that far too many people had not registered to vote, and he has to encourage them to do so, something they had previously done while visiting the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
It’s at this stage, Thibodeaux-Hasan said, that he loses some of the speed he had, and that is why he’s urging California politicians to make voter registration automated. Senate Bill 299, if approved by the governor and senators. The Secretary of State and DMV would do just that, according to Gavin Newsom.
The League of Women Voters of California, the American Civil Liberties Union members, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials ‘ Educational Fund are the three companies that have vehemently defended voting right. The three organizations have joined forces to oppose SB 299.
The organizations opposed to SB 299 “absolutely share the proponents ‘ commitment to reducing a participation gap… that mainly affects people of color and low-income California as well as other represented groups,” according to Rosalind Gold, the NALEO Educational Fund’s chief public policy officer.
Critics seek more research to prevent mistakes
In response, Gold stated, they would like to keep the conversation about how to increase subscription among these organizations without putting additional California residents at hazard.
How will this involuntary registration process, Gold said, prevent immigrants who are currently going through the naturalization process from becoming registered to vote, potentially denying them citizenship?
In a letter to the opposition, Gold and her friends wrote that they are concerned about the proposed modifications, which may make the DMV liable for identifying and filtering people who consider themselves noncitizens. We do n’t think the DMV is capable of consistently and accurately analyzing the documentation needed to determine citizenship.
According to Gold, the DMV is currently working on a project to modernize all of its driver’s license procedures and information technology systems, and it has requested that any additional changes been postponed until 2028, when those changes are finished.
The motor car account, the DMV’s key money supply, is expected to run out of money by 2025-26, according to the Congressional Analyst Office. Thus, the LAO recommended that the government consider cost forces when evaluating new ideas.
Because of these functional and governmental concerns,” we would assist study of a bill that may look at the proposed changes,” Gold said.” The system we have now, in the six years it’s operated, has seen 26 million novel or updated voter registration transactions.
But, SB 299’s supporters claim that the DMV system now tracks the necessary documentation to determine whether users of its system match the voting eligibility requirements.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people choose not to register as voters.
That statistics revealed that, in 2023, about 4.6 million Californians were entitled but unregulated. These people are overwhelmingly Asian, Black and Latino Americans, according to the Institute for Responsive Government.
According to the Secretary of State’s 2023 New Motor Voter Annual Report, 922, 024 California inhabitants, despite providing documentation that they were eligible to vote, declined to do so during a visit to the DMV alone next year. More people opted out – 53.2 % – than those who opted in, 46.8 %.
In 2021, 55.4 % of entitled but unregulated voters opted not to sign up. This represented significantly more than 1.2 million Californians.
In 2019, almost 1.5 million Californians, 45.2 % of those who were eligible but unlicensed, declined to register to vote.
Sydney Fang, the policy director at AAPI FORCE, recalled that, as a child, she had been the English language interpreter for her parents, migrants whose native language was Chinese, and voting subscription was not at the top of their list of urgent papers. Fang said she believes there is still a language barrier for many immigrants despite improvements in providing documents in the residents ‘ primary language.
In accordance with SB 299, available but unregistered citizens may be added to a list of registered voters for which the Secretary of State may be given access. The office would then create rules for what voters must do to complete their registration, and issue a notice to voters in their preferred language outlining the steps they must take to cancel or renew their registration.
For example, Fang said, the registration could be activated simply by casting a vote in an election, but SB 299 leaves defining this to the Secretary of State. According to Fang, it also grants the constitutional officer the authority to decide when the DMV should start implementing automatic registration, so the Secretary of State can decide to delay this step in the event that system upgrades or costs increase.
” Voter registration is a key barrier to voter participation in our democracy, and there’s this gap in participation”, Fang said. ” We see that the electorate ( in California ) is much older, much whiter, much wealthier than the rest of the state”.
State residents over 55 make up 35 % of California’s adult population, but only half of Californians are likely to cast ballot, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Meanwhile, young adults between 18 and 34 make up 31 % of the population but only 18 % of likely voters.
A strong majority of likely voters – 69 % – are homeowners while 31 % are renters, the PPIC found. By contrast, 68 % of unregistered adults and 59 % of infrequent voters are renters.
In contrast to just 35 % of unregistered adults, the think tank also discovered that 84 % of likely voters and 80 % of infrequent voters were born in the United States.
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, has been campaigning for SB 299, claiming that technology is more effective than opening the voting booth. In the past, California and other states have relied on literacy tests, poll taxes, and other measures to obstruct people of color from gaining the right to vote.
The bill’s author, Santa Barbara Democrat Senator Monique Limón, declared:” It is unacceptable that working-class communities of color continue to be systematically excluded from political power. We must take the necessary steps to ensure that California’s diverse population develops into a diverse electorate that truly represents our state’s power.
According to advocates, changes would expand the voter rolls.
SB 299 expands upon California’s “motor voter law”, which required the DMV in 2018 to start offering residents the option to register to vote when they applied for a driver’s license or state ID or updated their addresses.
The measure, if enacted, would the same secure automatic voter registration process used in Colorado, Oregon and nine other states.
” This system would substantially improve the accuracy of the voter rolls”, said Neal Ubriani of the Institute for Responsive Government, an advocacy organization. It involves involving people who have historically been cut out in the process.
SB 299 does n’t just benefit voters, though, Ubriani said. He added that the bill would assist grassroots activists like Thibodeaux-Hasan and others who are attempting to win political campaigns.
He claimed that a lot of time and money is spent on increasing turnout on Election Day because so much of it is spent on registration and funding.
The current automatic voter registration system is not the best option for non-English speakers, according to Itzel Maganda Chavez, director of civic engagement for the activist group Alliance San Diego, where many people unintentionally choose to opt out of voter registration. She claimed that when she spoke with residents of those communities, there was a general sense of annoyance over not being able to vote in the elections.
” We are aware that voter turnout and response rates could be significantly higher in the state of California as well,” Chavez said.
Many people who have previously been incarcerated, according to Thibodeaux-Hasan, would benefit from automatic registration, he said. As executive director of Sacramento’s Movement4Life, he works to reduce gun violence, and that work has allowed him to mentor or advise a number of local residents who, like him, have spent time in the corrections system at some point in their lives.
” This ( SB-299 ) is definitely a no-brainer in regards to most individuals who have been system-impacted because … there’s this narrative out there that, once you get a record, you lose your right to vote”, Thibodeaux-Hasan said.
Some people may not be aware that California’s Prop 17, which was approved by voters in 2017, grants parolees the ability to cast ballots and run for office.
” Most of these young people who are system-impacted, … they believe that they’re powerless”, Thibodeaux-Hasan said. They are unsure of how powerful their vote is. They do n’t think their vote matters”.
___
© 2024 The Sacramento Bee
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
