Governor Newsom signs new laws to protect California elections from Trump interference

This bill package builds on the Governor’s continued protection from potential federal or other state interference. Earlier today, the Governor signed SB 1354 (Archuleta), which draws a clear line around state-to-state military deployments and preserves California’s sovereignty over military forces operating within its borders.

A record of defending democracy

Today’s action builds on Governor Newsom’s long legacy of defending democracy:

Earlier this year, the Governor signed Senate Bill 73 (Cervantes and Umberg), which bars law enforcement — including federal agents — from accessing or disrupting voter rolls, election technology, or election workers without a court order or investigation into a specific violation of state election law, while directing the state DOJ to issue guidance to county officials on handling such request or efforts to access areas where voters cast ballots or votes are counted. The law also criminalizes knowingly seizing ballots from election officials’ custody, punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, three years imprisonment, or both.

Last year, Governor Newsom signed:

SB 3 (Cervantes) — requires that public vote counts are updated more regularly and made changes to the signature curing process for vote by mail ballots.
SB 42 (Umberg) — puts on the November 2026 ballot a measure to repeal the ban on public financing of elections in California, extending to all cities and counties the ability to create programs for publicly financed elections, helping level the playing field for candidates and reducing the ability of millionaires and billionaires to essentially buy elections.
SB 398 (Umberg) — criminalizes offering payments and other valuable items to incentivize voting or voter registration. The bill defines “other valuable consideration” to include a chance to win a lottery or prize-drawing contest. The crime would be punishable by imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both fine and imprisonment.
AB 5 (Berman) — requires election officials to finish counting all ballots by the 13th day following Election Day unless certain conditions are met.
AB 16 (Alanis) — extended the time before the election date that vote by mail ballots can be processed.

In 2024, Governor Newsom signed:

AB 2655 (Berman) — requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive and digitally altered or created content related to elections during specified periods, and requires them to provide mechanisms to report such content. It also authorizes candidates, elected officials, elections officials, the Attorney General, and a district attorney or city attorney to seek injunctive relief against a large online platform for noncompliance with the act.

AB 2839 (Pellerin) — expands the timeframe in which a committee or other entity is prohibited from knowingly distributing an advertisement or other election material containing deceptive AI-generated or manipulated content. The bill also expands the scope of existing law to prohibit materially deceptive content of elected officials, candidates, elections officials and others, authorizing them to file a civil action to enjoin the distribution of such material.

And in the years prior, Governor Newsom signed 10 bills into law in 2021 that safeguard elections and increase access so more Californians can lawfully participate, in 2020 the Governor took several actions (here, here, here) to ensure Californians could participate despite the ongoing global pandemic, and in 2019 Governor Newsom signed more than 17 bills into law to defend democracy — including some of the nation’s first that address deepfakes.

Investments to increase awareness and speed up elections

In his final budget, the Governor and Legislature included several key investments in the state’s election system:

$29 million for increased staffing, technology and equipment upgrades and purchases for counties to speed up counting and increase capacity.
$5 million for voter outreach and education at the county level to help Californians know resources and tools available in their community.
$5 million for voter outreach and education at the statewide level via the office of Secretary of State.
$750,000 to support statewide efforts to combat mis- and disinformation and ensure the state is prepared to guard against federal interference.

Trump’s history of attacking American democracy

Trump and his allies have spent years attacking the foundations of American democracy and undermining confidence in free and fair elections. After losing the 2020 election, Trump pressured state officials to overturn certified results — including infamously demanding Georgia’s Secretary of State “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome — while simultaneously promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud that were rejected by courts, election officials on both sides of the aisle, and even members of his own administration. He backed the fake electors scheme in multiple battleground states, pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to block certification of the Electoral College vote despite lacking any constitutional authority to do so, and later granted sweeping clemency to individuals connected to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that sought to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump and his allies have also fueled voter intimidation efforts through repeated false claims about noncitizen voting, pushed aggressive voter roll purges, deployed armed federal personnel near election sites, and sought access to voting systems, ballots, voter data, and election equipment — including the seizure of ballots in Fulton County.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.