republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/sb-397.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Online voter registration.	Existing law prohibits any person from being registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration and requires that the affidavit be mailed or delivered to the county elections official. The Secretary of State has certain administrative duties under existing law in providing voter registration materials. The federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 provides for state departments of motor vehicles to make voter registration information and materials available to an applicant for a driver's license and other vehicular documents. Existing state law requires licensed persons to provide to the Department of Motor Vehicles a signature and the Department of Motor Vehicles is required to digitize that signature and forward the digitized signature to the Secretary of State if a person wishes to register to vote. Under existing law, operative when the Secretary of State certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database that complies with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, a person who is qualified to register to vote and who has a valid California driver's license or state identification card is authorized to submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State. Under the above-described online voter registration provisions, the Secretary of State, for each electronic affiant, is required to obtain an electronic copy of the applicant's signature from his or her driver's license or state identification card directly from the Department of Motor Vehicles.	us/states/ca	California Legislature	20112012	SB 397	California SB 397 (20112012)	bill	Online voter registration.	enacted	Yee	9	27	8	2011-02-16	2011-10-07	openstates	ocd-bill/6366803c-4447-424a-b03f-034d88e540a3	http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB397	8c2d44f95222bc814a7dc870b28512228d62f9946246803ebb0481085e2e14c7	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-ca

California SB 397 (20112012) — Online voter registration.

Existing law prohibits any person from being registered as a voter except by affidavit of registration and requires that the affidavit be mailed or delivered to the county elections official. The Secretary of State has certain administrative duties under existing law in providing voter registration materials. The federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 provides for state departments of motor vehicles to make voter registration information and materials available to an applicant for a driver's license and other vehicular documents. Existing state law requires licensed persons to provide to the Department of Motor Vehicles a signature and the Department of Motor Vehicles is required to digitize that signature and forward the digitized signature to the Secretary of State if a person wishes to register to vote. Under existing law, operative when the Secretary of State certifies that the state has a statewide voter registration database that complies with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, a person who is qualified to register to vote and who has a valid California driver's license or state identification card is authorized to submit an affidavit of voter registration electronically on the Internet Web site of the Secretary of State. Under the above-described online voter registration provisions, the Secretary of State, for each electronic affiant, is required to obtain an electronic copy of the applicant's signature from his or her driver's license or state identification card directly from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. 02/16/11 - Introduced (filed) — source
2. 04/27/11 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
3. 05/11/11 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
4. 05/31/11 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
5. 08/15/11 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
6. 08/26/11 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
7. 10/07/11 - Chaptered (committee substitute) — source
8. SB397 (committee substitute) — source
9. 09/06/11 - Enrolled (enrolled) — source

Votes

• Do pass as amended. — 12–5 (pass) · lower
• 3rd Reading — 25–14 (pass) · upper
• Unfinished Business SB397 Yee Concurrence — 23–13 (pass) · upper
• SB 397 Yee Senate Third Reading By BLUMENFIELD — 50–27 (pass) · lower
• Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — 3–2 (pass) · upper
• Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — 5–2 (pass) · lower
• Do pass as amended. — 6–2 (pass) · upper
• Placed on Appropriations Suspense file. — 9–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Yee — primary (person)
• Ammiano — coauthor (person)
• Blumenfield — coauthor (person)
• Calderon — coauthor (person)
• Hall — coauthor (person)
• Huffman — coauthor (person)
• Portantino — coauthor (person)
• Williams — coauthor (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2011-02-16 Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. introduction, reading-1
• 2011-02-17 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 19.
• 2011-02-24 Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. referral-committee
• 2011-04-08 Set for hearing May 3.
• 2011-04-27 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee
• 2011-05-04 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 3. Noes 2. Page 852.) (May 3). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2011-05-06 Set for hearing May 16.
• 2011-05-11 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee
• 2011-05-16 Placed on APPR. suspense file.
• 2011-05-20 Set for hearing May 26.
• 2011-05-27 From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 6. Noes 2. Page 1116.) (May 26). amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2011-05-31 Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage
• 2011-06-02 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 25. Noes 14. Page 1262.) Ordered to the Assembly. reading-3, reading-1, passage
• 2011-06-02 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. reading-1
• 2011-06-13 Referred to Com. on E. & R. referral-committee
• 2011-07-06 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (July 5). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2011-08-15 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. reading-2, reading-1, committee-passage, amendment-passage, referral-committee
• 2011-08-17 Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. referral-committee
• 2011-08-26 From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (August 25). amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2011-08-26 Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage
• 2011-08-29 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-2, reading-1
• 2011-09-01 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 50. Noes 27. Page 2782.) Ordered to the Senate. reading-3, reading-1, passage
• 2011-09-01 In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
• 2011-09-02 Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 23. Noes 13. Page 2268.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage
• 2011-09-09 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
• 2011-10-07 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
• 2011-10-07 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 561, Statutes of 2011.

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/6366803c-4447-424a-b03f-034d88e540a3. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).