Election-Day Registration : Chacon’s Bill to Spur Voting Falls 3 Votes Short

Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) failed Monday in his attempt to allow Californians to vote on Election Day without registering in advance and without showing identification at the polls, a proposal he said was prompted by San Diego County’s worst-in-the-state voter turnout in last November’s elections.

Chacon’s bill would have permitted unregistered people to cast ballots in statewide elections after showing identification, being identified by another registered voter in their precinct, or signing a statement swearing to residency in the precinct.

Ballots cast by voters without identification would be provisional and not counted until the person’s residence was confirmed by the county registrar of voters.

The bill was defeated on a vote of 38 to 37, three votes short of the 41 needed for passage. Chacon was given permission to have the bill reconsidered later this week, when he will try to obtain the votes of five Assembly members who were either absent or not voting Monday.

Chacon said his legislation would end what he called an “elitist” system of requiring people to register to vote at least 28 days before an election. He said the current system discriminates against those who move shortly before an election, who forget to register or who do not become interested in the election until the last minute.

Would Open Up System

“I think we ought to open up the system to make sure that every person has a right to vote,” Chacon said.

The bill is part of a legislative package being carried by Chacon, chairman of the Assembly Elections Committee, to boost voter turnout and participation. His other bills seek to put notices on grocery bags reminding people to register and vote, to notify people that they have the right to take paid time off work to vote, and to keep poll sites as consistent as possible so that voters know where they should go to cast their ballots.

Chacon said San Diego’s low voter turnout prompted him to introduce the bill, which he has estimated would increase voter participation by as much as 20%. San Diego was last among the state’s 58 counties with 51.2% of registered voters casting ballots in the November election. The statewide voter turnout was 59.3%.

“I think something has to be done,” Chacon said. “There are a lot of things we can do, but this would do more than anything else to get people to vote.”

‘Poorly Conceived Idea’

In a brief debate before the vote Monday, Assemblyman Eric Seastrand (R-Salinas) said Election Day voter registration was a “poorly conceived idea” that would open up elections across the state to voter fraud.

“With all the effort that goes into hyping people up, getting them registered, getting them out to vote, all these things that go on, somebody’s got to be a dunce to not get registered in time to get out and vote,” Seastrand said in an interview.

But Chacon and his supporters said the three states that have Election Day registration now--Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin--do not have problems with voter fraud. They said the requirements for identification on Election Day would be stiffer than those now in place under registration by post card or absentee voting.

“A society as mobile as that of California just begs for Election Day registration,” said Assemblyman Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Fairfield).