The state’s new Motor Voter law – which will automatically register eligible Californians to vote when they get a driver’s license or ID card – goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2016. But the system likely won’t be ready until months later because the Secretary of State’s Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles must prepare technology needed to exchange data with each other.
The Secretary of State’s new VoteCal system – the statewide voter registration database – must be fully certified and deployed before the Motor Voter program begins registering citizens at the DMV.
According to information from the Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday, VoteCal is on schedule to be certified for go-live in June 2016. That means Motor Voter wouldn’t be available to Californians before the June 2016 primary election; the deadline to register to vote for that election is May 23, 2016.
“It is our goal to implement and begin registering citizens as soon as possible,” a Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson said about the Motor Voter statute.
“We are working with the DMV to determine implementation timelines,” the Secretary of State’s Office wrote to Techwire. “We will also be working with the DMV to ensure development of information transfer protocols that protects the integrity of the election process and protects the confidentiality of voter information.”
DMV deferred comment on VoteCal, but did issue a written statement on Monday:
“This new law requires the DMV to establish a schedule and method to electronically provide the Secretary of State (SOS) the records for each person who submits an application for a driver license, ID card, or change of address. The New Motor Voter Act is scheduled to go into effect in January 2016, but the information will not be sent to the SOS until work is completed on a statewide database by the SOS, regulations are in place, and funding to implement is secured.”
As of Sept. 30, a total of 12 counties are now on VoteCal, as the Secretary of State continues its phased rollout. The implementation began in July with five pilot counties – El Dorado, Mendocino, Orange, Sacramento and Solano.
The creation of VoteCal was prompted by requirements in the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. The development of a single registration database is a sweeping change because today the 58 counties maintain their own voter files individually under the current “Calvoter” system.
CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. was selected in 2013 to develop VoteCal.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla, in a radio interview on Tuesday with KQED, said the new auto Motor Voter Registration system could potentially bring 6 million more Californians onto the voter rolls.
“Given technology we have nowadays, it is easy to do, it is actually a cost saver for government – good for voters, good for democracy. So there really is no downside,” Padilla said.
But not everyone share’s Padilla’s sunny opinion. Some pundits, particularly Republicans, believe the Motor Voter system will disproportionately expand the number of registered Democrat voters.
Oregon became the first state to enact a Motor Voter statute in 2014.
