Business Programs Division

California Business Connect Related Regulations

The proposed regulations were submitted to the Office of Administrative Law, the state agency responsible for reviewing and approving state regulations. The 45-day written public comment period is December 31, 2021 through Februrary 14, 2022. Any interested person, or their authorized representative, may submit a written comments pertaining to the proposed regulations. No hearing date has been scheduled, however, any interested person, or their authorized representative, can submit a written request for a public hearing no later than 15 days prior to the close of the written comment period.

Elections Division

Access to Voter Registration Information

The Secretary of State is providing notice of changes to the regulations originally published on November 27, 2020. The Secretary of State is proposing amendments to the originally-noticed proposed regulation text to address concerns raised during the initial 45- day public comment period and the subsequent first 15-day public comment period that ended on March 22, 2021, and, the second 15-day public comment period that ended on July 15, 2021. Any interested person, or their authorized representative, may submit written comments pertaining to the changes in the text of the proposed regulations. The Secretary of State will accept written comments on the changes from August 10, 2021, to August 25, 2021. The Secretary of State will consider only comments received at the Secretary of State’s office by that date.

Vote-by-Mail Ballot Drop Boxes and Vote-by-Mail Drop-Off Locations

The Secretary of State is providing notice of changes to the regulations originally published on March 12, 2021. The Secretary of State is proposing amendments to the originally-noticed proposed regulation text to address concerns raised during the 45-day and the two subsequent 15-day public comment period. Any interested person, or their authorized representative, may submit written comments pertaining to the changes in the text of the proposed regulations. The Secretary of State will accept written comments on the changes from October 26, 2021, to November 10, 2021. The Secretary of State will consider only comments received at the Secretary of State’s office by that date.

Following the close of the written comment period, the Secretary of State, upon its own motion or at the instance of any interested party, may thereafter adopt the proposals provided by the public or may modify such proposals if such modifications are sufficiently related to the original text. With the exception of technical or grammatical changes, the full text of any modified proposal will be available from our office for 15 days prior to its adoption and will be mailed to those persons who submit written comments related to this proposal or who have requested notification of any changes to the proposal.

Statewide Voter Registration System and Conditional Voter Registration 

The Secretary of State has submitted proposed regulations to the Office of Administrative Law to make permanent the emergency regulations it adopted in October 2020 related to the statewide voter registration system and conditional voter registration. The emergency regulations made changes to the reason codes for vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, and conditional voter registration provisional ballots.  In addition to the permanent adoption of the emergency regulations, the Secretary of State has made additional changes to the text of proposed regulations.

The 45-day written public comment period will end on August 5, 2021.  Any interested person, or their authorized representative, may submit written comments pertaining to the changes in the text of the proposed regulations. The Secretary of State will accept written comments on the changes until 11:59 p.m. on August 5, 2021. The Secretary of State will only consider comments received at the Secretary of State's office by that time. No hearing date has been scheduled; however, any interested person, or their authorized representative, can submit a written request for a public hearing no later than Wednesday, July 21.

Petition Processing, Signature Verification, Ballot Processing, and Ballot Counting

The Secretary of State has submitted proposed regulations to the Office of Administrative Law to make permanent the emergency regulations it adopted on September 28, 2020, related to Signature Verification, Ballot Processing, and Ballot Counting. The permanent regulations will also include provisions for the processing of elections-related petitions.

Any interested person, or their authorized representative, may submit written comments pertaining to the text of the proposed regulations. The Secretary of State will accept written comments on the proposed regulations from December 10, 2021, to January 24, 2022. The Secretary of State will consider only comments received at the Secretary of State’s office by that date. No hearing date has been scheduled; however, any interested person, or their authorized representative, can submit a written request for a public hearing no later than Wednesday, January 10, 2022.