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California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill to automatically register to vote ANYONE who has a driver’s license or state ID card. According to the Sacramento Bee:

Assembly Bill 1461, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will require the state to register adults to vote when they get or renew a driver’s license, unless they opt out. It will make California only the second state, after Oregon, to proactively register people to vote unless they decline.

The California legislation was a priority of Secretary of State Alex Padilla and followed the state’s record-low turnout in last year’s elections.

“In a free society, the right to vote is fundamental,” Padilla said in a statement after Brown announced signing the bill. “We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different.”

In California, the law will EXPAND access to the polls at the same time as dozens of OTHER states attempt to RESTRICT voting by “…implementing significant new electoral restrictions, such as requiring photo identification to vote and cutting back on early voting.” SacBee.com continues:

“California just became a national leader on voting rights,” Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Democracy Program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement. “In too many states, our outdated and error-prone registration system blocks millions from the polls. Automatic permanent voter registration can transform voting in America. Other states should look to California as a bold new model for reform.”

Democrats said the measure would increase the ranks of people – particularly the young, poor and nonwhite – engaged in the political process. Republicans mostly opposed the measure. They warned it risked allowing people eligible to get driver’s licenses, but who are noncitizens and ineligible to vote, to register and cast fraudulent ballots.

Democratic lawmakers countered that the bill included protections to prevent that from happening.

Under the new law, automatic voter registration would not occur until the voter database, VoteCal, is up and running and there is a system in place to prevent transfer of noncitizen information. The automatic registration will also not occur until money has been appropriated by the Legislature.

In November, only 42.2 percent of voters showed up, the lowest participation in a general election since World War II, according to a committee analysis of the measure. The turnout rate reflected just 31 percent of the state population eligible to vote, including an estimated 6.6 million Californians not registered.

-Bill at