(a) In lieu of mailing a residency confirmation postcard, as prescribed in subdivision (a) of Section 2220, the county elections official may contract with a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees to obtain use of change-of-address data in accordance with this section.

(b) If the county elections official contracts with a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees pursuant to subdivision (a), all of the following shall occur:

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(1) For each registered voter in the county, the county elections official shall initiate a search for change-of-address data with the consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees by providing the name and residence address of each registered voter in the county to the consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees.

(2) The consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees shall search their databases for each name and address provided by the county elections official and shall report to the county elections official any information indicating that the registered voter changed the voter’s residence address.

(c) (1) Notwithstanding Section 2194 of this code or § 7924.000 of the Government Code, and except as provided in paragraph (2), a county elections official may disclose a registered voter’s name and residence address to a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees pursuant to, and in accordance with, this section.

(2) A county elections official shall not disclose to a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees the name and residence address of a registered voter if that information is deemed confidential pursuant to Section 2166, 2166.5, or 2166.7 of this code, or Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 6205) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.

(d) A consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees shall use the information provided by a county elections official only pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b), and shall not retain any information received from the county elections official pursuant to this section.

(e) Based on change-of-address data received from a consumer credit reporting agency or its licensees, the county elections official shall send a forwardable notice, including a postage-paid and preaddressed return form, which may be in the form of a postcard, to the registered voter to enable the voter to verify or correct address information. The forwardable notice shall be in substantially the following form:

“We have received notification that you have moved to a new residence address in ____ County. You will remain registered to vote at your old address unless you notify our office that the address to which this card was mailed is a change of your permanent residence. Please notify our office in writing by returning the attached postage-paid postcard. If this is not a permanent residence, and you do not wish to change your address for voting purposes, please disregard this notice.”

(f) The county elections official shall take all of the following actions as appropriate:

(1) If a voter responds to the forwardable notice sent pursuant to subdivision (e) or otherwise verifies in a signed writing that the voter has moved to a new residence address in California, the county elections official shall verify the signature on the response by comparing it to the signature on file for the voter and, if appropriate, immediately update the voter’s registration record with the new residence address.

(2) If a voter does not respond to the forwardable notice sent pursuant to subdivision (e) and does not otherwise verify in a signed writing that the voter has moved to a new residence address, the elections official shall not update the status of the voter’s registration to inactive or cancel the voter registration.

(g) For purposes of this section, “consumer credit reporting agency” has the same meaning as set forth in subdivision (d) of § 1785.3 of the Civil Code.

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 94. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Sec. 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.)