republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-2296.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Digital signatures."
description: "Existing law, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, provides that a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form and defines an electronic signature for purposes of the act. Existing provisions of the Government Code authorize the use of a digital signature in any written communication with a public entity, and specifies that in those communications, the use of a digital signature has the same force and effect as the use of a manual signature if it complies with specified requirements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 2296"
citation: "California AB 2296 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Digital signatures."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Low"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2016-02-18"
last_action: "2016-08-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/802749a0-4187-4bd0-abba-a82de534a691"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296"
source_hash: "bd02b5e989086b2634d4084c1995d4d218acc4949b7f7bfa7af55d736ac4180a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2296 (20152016) — Digital signatures.

Existing law, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, provides that a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form and defines an electronic signature for purposes of the act. Existing provisions of the Government Code authorize the use of a digital signature in any written communication with a public entity, and specifies that in those communications, the use of a digital signature has the same force and effect as the use of a manual signature if it complies with specified requirements.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/16 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229699INT)
2. **03/18/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229698AMD)
3. **04/19/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229697AMD)
4. **06/21/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229696AMD)
5. **08/19/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229694CHP)
6. **AB2296** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296)
7. **08/09/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2296&version=20150AB229695ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2296 LOW Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar 2nd — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 2296 LOW Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Low — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2016-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2016-03-17** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2016-03-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-03-28** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-19** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-04-20** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-26** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 26). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-04-27** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 4627.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2016-05-12** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2016-06-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 14). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-06-21** Read second time and amended. Ordered to consent calendar. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-06-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 4646.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-30** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after July 29 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-08** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 5741.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-08-12** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2016-08-19** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-08-19** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 144, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/802749a0-4187-4bd0-abba-a82de534a691`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).