Sacramento, CA – Last night, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 2841 authored by Assemblymember Evan Low into law. AB 2841 will preserve democracy by protecting eligible voters from faulty purges and by shoring up systems to protect voters with disabilities. AB 2841 was sponsored by the League of Women Voters California and the ACLU California Action, and supported by a wide range of voting rights and civil rights organizations, including A New Way of Life Re-entry Project, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – California, California Association of Nonprofits, California Common Cause, California Environmental Voters, California School Employees Association, Courage California, Disability Rights California, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, National Council of Jewish Women-California, The W. Haywood Burns Institute, and Voices for Progress.

AB 2841 will ensure that voters in California are notified and have an opportunity to cure errors before they are removed from voter registration rolls. Prior to AB 2841, California voters would not be informed when elections officials removed them from the voting rolls based on information received from government agencies. Eligible voters who were mistakenly purged often did not realize the error until they were ready to vote. Inaccurate voter registration cancellations disproportionately impact voters who are already underrepresented in our electorate, including those who are Black, Brown, Indigenous, or other people of color, low-income, and young people. AB 2841 will require county elections officials to notify voters before they are removed from the rolls and allow eligible voters to stop mistaken registration cancellations before they take place.

AB 2841 also will protect voters with disabilities under conservatorship by standardizing reporting procedures, increasing statewide transparency, and helping counties comply with existing law. Voters with disabilities are subject to inaccurate voter registration cancellations and underrepresented in our democracy - during the last national election, voters with disabilities were about 6 percent less likely to vote than the overall eligible voter population. Though California has made important strides in recent years to address the alarmingly high rates at which people with disabilities are disenfranchised in conservatorship cases, research by the American Civil Liberties Union raises doubts that eligible voters with disabilities in every county actually are receiving the protections they deserve. AB 2841 will help provide the consistency and transparency required to make sure all eligible Californians under conservatorship are able to vote.

“In recent years, faulty data coupled with regular voter roll maintenance, has led to the disenfranchisement of voters in California,” Assemblymember Low said. “AB 2841 will address these failures by preventing erroneous voter purges before they occur and protecting the voting rights of individuals under conservatorship. Ensuring that voters are not wrongly excluded from the ballot box is fundamental to maintaining the integrity of our elections. I am deeply grateful to Governor Gavin Newsom for signing this important piece of legislation.”

“California leads the nation with laws designed to defend voting rights. AB 2841 continues in that tradition, making sure that people are not mistakenly dropped from the voting rolls, and guaranteeing that people with disabilities under conservatorship get the voting protections they are due,” said Dora Rose, Deputy Director for the League of Women Voters of California. “We thank Assemblymember Low and Senator Becker for their leadership in authoring, and Governor Newsom for signing this bill to safeguard the franchise.”

"Our democracy works best when it's fair and inclusive," said Brittany Stonesifer, voting rights attorney with ACLU of Northern California. "Putting these common-sense measures into law strengthens our democracy by helping ensure that voters of color and voters with disabilities are not wrongfully excluded from elections because of faulty registration purges."

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2022

Contact:
Ruth Dawson, (916) 824-3262, RDawson [at] acluca.org
Cait Voorhees, 916-319-2332, cait.voorhees [at] asm.ca.gov