SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly voted to pass Assemblymember Paul Fong's (D-Cupertino) voter rights protection bill. AB 84 protects US citizens' right to vote in California elections by allowing individuals who become citizens after the voter registration deadline to register and vote until the close of polls on election day.
Current law allows individuals who have recently become citizens to register to vote up to seven days before an election. While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services tries to schedule naturalization ceremonies with enough time to allow new citizens to register to vote, unfortunately, some individuals are naturalized less than seven days prior to an election and are subsequently barred from voting in their first election.
"New citizens are fully eligible to vote under California's constitution, but are denied their most basic democratic right because of a timing problem. During presidential elections new citizens should be able to cast a vote for the future leader of a nation that they just pledged citizenship to," said Assemblymember Fong. "Most new citizens are enthusiastic to cast their first ballot in an election, but when their first experience is one of denial it may discourage future participation in the democratic process. That is not the message our state should be sending."
AB 84 is an important step in welcoming new citizens to be active members in our state's electoral process. California should be doing everything we can to maximize voter participation. This is especially relevant in presidential elections, where a new citizen should be able to cast a vote for the future leader of a nation to which he or she just pledged citizenship.
The bill maintains existing safeguards to protect the new citizen voting process from abuse or fraud. In addition, AB 84 requires new citizens register and vote at the office of the county elections official or at another location designated by the official in order to ensure there is no backlog at the polls on election day.
Assemblymember Fong serves as Chair of the Elections and Redistricting Committee and is a member of the Higher Education, Utilities and Commerce, and Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committees. In addition, Assemblymember Fong serves on the Select Committees on Aerospace, Biotechnology, Community Colleges, Domestic Violence, and Innovation and the Bay Area Economy. He represents Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose.
CONTACT: Debbie Diaz Williams @ (916) 319-2022
