Californians would be required to vote under Marin lawmaker’s bill

Asserting that Californians have a civic duty to vote, Assemblyman Marc Levine has introduced a bill that would make voting mandatory - but with no penalty for failing to do so.

Punishment is not the idea behind the bill that would require everyone who qualifies and is registered to vote to cast a ballot, “marked or unmarked in whole or in part,” at every election in the area where they live.

“It’s about empowering voters,” said Levine, D-San Rafael, the frontrunner among three challengers in the March 3 primary election. “Every vote makes a difference.”

Boosting voter turnout also benefits Democrats, he acknowledged, noting that “if everyone voted Republicans would face an eternity of lost elections” in California and in much of the nation.

With 9.1 million registered voters, Democrats account for nearly 45% of the state’s electorate, with a nearly 2-to-1 advantage over Republicans (4.8 million), who are also outnumbered by no party preference voters (a total of 5.3 million).

Republicans often disdain moves to expand voter participation on the grounds that it would open democracy to an “uninformed electorate,” Levine said. But citizens who are required to pay taxes and to serve on juries also have a “civic obligation in voting for their government,” Levine said.

“When they don’t vote bad things happen,” he said. “Rights are actively taken away, like the right to an equal marriage.”

In Ohio, state officials last year eliminated more than 180,000 voters from the rolls because they hadn’t cast ballots in the past six years, a process upheld as legal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Levine, whose district covers all of Marin County and the southern portion of Sonoma County, including part of Santa Rosa, faces two Democrats and one Republican in his bid for a fifth term.

Asked if his bill, AB 2070, is likely to be passed in Legislature controlled by Democrats, Levine said it may already have succeeded by generating “quite a buzz” while ballots are in the mail.

Voting is mandatory in 30 nations around the world, including Belgium, where it has been compulsory since 1893, Levine said in a press release. The World Atlas says about 22 countries have compulsory voting but only 11 enforce it.

California participation in general elections has fluctuated from 64.5% in 2018 to 75.2% in 2016, 42.2% in 2014 and 72.4% in 2012.

A Public Policy Institute of California report in 2015 said the previous year’s turnout was a record low and said most state residents (84%) say low participation is a problem. Blacks, Democrats, people age 55 and over and the more affluent are most likely to have that opinion, the report said.

In a poll of registered voters who said they do not always vote, 36% cited a lack of interest in politics, 32% time or schedule constraints and 10% cited a lack of confidence in elections as the top three reasons, the report said.

Levine thinks all citizens should vote.

“It’s one of those rites of passage for every citizen to have an interest in their government,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.