4.6 million eligible Californians opt out of registering to vote. This plan would change that

More than half of eligible but unregistered voters are opting out of signing up to vote when given the chance at the California Department of Motor Vehicles, a tide of refusals that troubles grass-roots organizers such as Sacramento resident Julius Thibodeaux-Hasan.

During election seasons, Thibodeaux-Hasan spends time educating people of color about what’s at stake for them. How does a proposition or legislation affect their rights and privileges? How will they perpetuate or worsen inequities and disenfranchisement?

“They don’t understand that they have a voice and that they need to weigh in on things that are happening in their communities, laws that are being passed, legislation that will impact them or impact their communities in ways that oftentimes have a negative impact.” Thibodeaux-Hasan said.

As he explains the implications and answers questions, he said, the light bulbs pop on. These potential voters had arrived unwilling to support a system that seemed wholly disconnected to them, he said but before leaving, many expressed a desire to have a say at the ballot box.

That’s when Thibodeaux-Hasan said he discovers that far too many of them have never registered to vote, and he has to motivate them to get registered, something that they passed on doing on a past trip to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

It’s at this stage, Thibodeaux-Hasan said, that he loses some of the momentum he had, and that is why he’s urging California legislators to make voter registration automatic. Senate Bill 299, if passed by legislators and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would pave the way for the Secretary of State and DMV to do just that.

While a coalition of more than 140 grass-roots groups are fighting for the measure, they face opposition from three organizations that have steadfastly defended voting rights: the League of Women Voters of California, California affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ Educational Fund. The three groups have allied in their opposition of SB 299.

Rosalind Gold, the chief public policy officer for the NALEO Educational Fund, said the organizations opposing SB 299 “absolutely deeply share the proponents dedication to reducing a participation gap … that particularly affects people of color and low income Californians as well as other underrepresented groups.”

Opponents seek more study to avoid mistakes

Consequently, Gold said, they would like to continue the dialogue about the most effective way to expand registration among these groups without putting other California residents at risk.

For instance, Gold said, how will this automatic registration process ensure that immigrants in the midst of the naturalization process do not wind up registered to vote, a mistake that could cost them their citizenship?

“We are ... concerned about the amendments which would make the DMV responsible for identifying and filtering people it believes are noncitizens,” Gold and her allies wrote in a letter opposing the bill. ”We do not believe that this DMV is prepared to consistently and accurately track documents that would be relied on to assess citizenship.”

The DMV is already going through a modernization project that affects all of its driver’s license operations and information technology systems, Gold said, and it has asked that any other changes be delayed until after it has completed those changes in 2028.

In addition, the Legislative Analyst Office, has reported that the primary funding source for the DMV, known as the motor vehicle account, is expected to fully exhaust its reserves and become insolvent in 2025-26. Consequently, the LAO recommended that the legislature consider cost pressures when evaluating new proposals.

“The system we have now, in the six years it’s operated, has seen 26 million new or updated voter registration transactions, and the system we have now is the top registration method for youth and voters of color,” Gold told The Bee, “so because of these operational and fiscal concerns, … we would support study of a bill that would look at the proposed changes.”

However, the organizations supporting SB 299 said the DMV system, as part of a longstanding routine, already flags the documents necessary to determine whether consumers in its system meet the eligibility criteria for voting.

Hundreds of thousands opt out of voter registration yearly

That data revealed that, in 2023, roughly 4.6 million Californians were eligible but unregistered. These individuals are disproportionately Asian, Black and Latino Americans, according to the Institute for Responsive Government.

Last year alone, 922,024 California residents declined to register to vote during a visit to the DMV even though they provided documents showing they were eligible to do so, according to the Secretary of State’s 2023 New Motor Voter Annual Report. More people opted out – 53.2% – than those who opted in, 46.8%.

In 2021, 55.4% of eligible but unregistered voters opted not to sign up. This represented slightly more than 1.2 million Californians.

In 2019, nearly 1.5 million Californians, 45.2% of those who were eligible but unregistered, declined to register to vote.

Sydney Fang, the policy director at AAPI FORCE, recalled that, as a child, she had been the English language translator for her parents, refugees whose native language was Cantonese, and voter registration was not at the top of their list of urgent paperwork. Despite improvements in providing documents in residents’ primary language, Fang said she believes there is still a language barrier for many immigrants.

Under SB 299, if an eligible but unregistered voter opts out, they would be added to a list of pre-approved voters that would then go to the Secretary of State’s Office. That office would then make regulations dictating what voters would have to do to complete their registration and send a notice to voters in their preferred language explaining what they must do to opt out of or activate 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. It also gives that constitutional officer the discretion to determine when the DMV should implement automatic registration, Fang said, so if implementation costs or system upgrades pose hurdles, the Secretary of State can opt to delay this process.

“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.”

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, state residents aged 55 and older make up 35% of the state’s adult population but constitute half of Californians who are likely to vote. 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.

The think tank also reported that 84% of likely voters and 80% of infrequent voters were born in the United States, compared with just 35% of unregistered adults.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, has been advocating for SB 299, saying that the current voter registration system works to maintain institutional racism rather than using technology to open the gates. In the past, California and other states used literacy tests, poll taxes and other measures to prevent people of color from securing the right to vote.

Senator Monique Limón, a Santa Barbara Democrat who authored the bill, said: “It is unacceptable that working-class communities of color continue to be systematically left out of access to political power. We must take the necessary steps to ensure that California’s diverse population becomes a diverse electorate that truly represents the power of our state.”

Changes would diversify the voter rolls, advocates say

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’s bringing people into the process who are historically left out.”

SB 299 doesn’t just benefit voters, though, Ubriani said. The bill also would assist grassroots organizers like Thibodeaux-Hasan and others involved in getting out the vote for political campaigns, he said.

A great deal of time and money goes into getting people registered to vote — time and money that could be spent on boosting turnout on Election Day, he said.

Itzel Maganda Chavez, civic engagement director for the activist group Alliance San Diego who does voter registration outreach with marginalized communities, said that the current automatic voter registration system is not the easiest option for non-English speakers, with many unwittingly opting out of voter registration. She said that while speaking with people in those communities, there was a common sense of frustration about not being able to participate in the electoral process.

“We know that response rates and voter turnout could be much higher not only in San Diego but in the state of California,” Chavez said.

Thibodeaux-Hasan said he feels that automatic registration would help many individuals who have previously been incarcerated. 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.

And, some may not be aware that California’s Prop 17, approved by voters in 2017, restores the rights to vote and to run for elected office to people currently on parole.

“Most of these young people who are system-impacted, ... they believe that they’re powerless,” Thibodeaux-Hasan said. “They don’t understand how powerful their vote is. They don’t think their vote matters.”