republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-2561.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Vital records: local registrar: copy of records."
description: "Existing law prescribes the duties of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics (State Registrar) and local registrars of births and deaths with respect to the registration of certificates of live birth, fetal death, or death, and marriage licenses. Existing law requires each local registrar of births and deaths to transmit to the county recorder, for a special county record, a copy of each original birth certificate and death certificate, and send the original certificates to the State Registrar. In lieu of that procedure, existing law instead authorizes the county recorder to make the copies of certificates for the special county record, requires the local registrar to transmit the original certificates to the county recorder for this purpose, and requires the county recorder to forward the original certificates to the State Registrar. Existing law exempts a local registrar from the application of these provisions if it serves a countywide health jurisdiction of over 550,000 population, as determined by the 1950 census."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 2561"
citation: "California AB 2561 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Vital records: local registrar: copy of records."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Flora"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 19
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2018-02-15"
last_action: "2018-07-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d9b2ff65-9117-42d7-b54f-f141818bb338"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561"
source_hash: "344b6c344e41b8ee6b2471f4424419820ba11d7133767ef22f6e3eed6c004f2f"
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 2561 (20172018) — Vital records: local registrar: copy of records.

Existing law prescribes the duties of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics (State Registrar) and local registrars of births and deaths with respect to the registration of certificates of live birth, fetal death, or death, and marriage licenses. Existing law requires each local registrar of births and deaths to transmit to the county recorder, for a special county record, a copy of each original birth certificate and death certificate, and send the original certificates to the State Registrar. In lieu of that procedure, existing law instead authorizes the county recorder to make the copies of certificates for the special county record, requires the local registrar to transmit the original certificates to the county recorder for this purpose, and requires the county recorder to forward the original certificates to the State Registrar. Existing law exempts a local registrar from the application of these provisions if it serves a countywide health jurisdiction of over 550,000 population, as determined by the 1950 census.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/15/18 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561&version=20170AB256199INT)
2. **03/15/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561&version=20170AB256198AMD)
3. **07/20/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561&version=20170AB256196CHP)
4. **AB2561** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561)
5. **07/05/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2561&version=20170AB256197ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2561 FLORA Consent Calendar Second Day — **71–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB2561 — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **15–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Flora — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-02-15** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2018-02-16** From printer. May be heard in committee March 18.
- **2018-03-08** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-15** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-03-19** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-04** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 3). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-11** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 11). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-04-12** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 71. Noes 0. Page 4791.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-05-03** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-06** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-25** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2018-06-26** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-07-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 5040.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-07-03** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2018-07-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2018-07-20** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-07-20** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 147, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d9b2ff65-9117-42d7-b54f-f141818bb338`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).