CA Bill Would Encourage Parolees to Register to Vote

A recently-introduced California bill from Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) would force county probation officers to give paroled criminals information on how to register to vote. AB149 notes that current California law requires that to register to vote, you must be of age and “not incarcerated or on parole for a felony conviction.” Once felons have been taken off probation, they can vote, but must re-register to vote. The bill would therefore require “each county probation department to either establish and maintain on the county probation department’s Internet Web site a hyperlink to the Secretary of State’s voting rights guide for incarcerated persons or post a notice with the Internet Web site address that contains the Secretary of State’s voting rights guide for incarcerated persons in each probation office where probationers are seen.”

The bill has actually been softened. The original bill proposed by Weber would have forced the Department and Rehabilitation to provide parolees the most recent version of the Secretary of State’s voting rights guide and informing the parolee of his/her possible voting eligibility. The original bill also would have forced county jails to do the same for incarcerated prisoners.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).