Pursuant to California Elections Code section 2102(c), voters certify that they are eligible to vote by truthfully completing an affidavit of voter registration and signing the form under penalty of perjury.
The federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires individuals registering to vote for the first time in the state/jurisdiction to prove identity and residency in the voting jurisdiction by providing either a valid driver's license or state ID card number. Applicants who do not have either can provide the last four digits of their Social Security number.
When voters register to vote in Orange County, they provide the number of their California Driver’s License or Identification Card. This number and the voter’s name and date of birth must match the information for the voter on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
If a registrant’s information on the registration affidavit does not match the information on file with the DMV, the registrant is notified that proof of identity and residency is still required. Only 0.1 percent of Orange County’s nearly 1.9 million active registered voters are currently required by the Help America Vote Act to provide a valid proof of identity before they can vote in the next federal election.
In order to register to vote, pursuant to Elections Code section 2101, a person must:
- Be a citizen of the United States;
- Be a resident of California;
- Be at least 18 years of age as of the day of the next election;
- Not be in prison for the conviction of a felony; and
- Not be deemed by an appropriate court to be mentally incompetent.
OCROV reviews every application for voter registration for eligibility to vote in Orange County, including the requirement that the registrant be a U.S. citizen. For those applications lacking the citizenship self-attestation required by State and federal law, the application is rejected.
Willfully lying about one’s eligibility to vote on a registration affidavit is a felony in California, carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison.