Governor Newsom highlights California’s work to deliver a free and fair election tomorrow; defend democracy from ongoing and anticipated attacks

SACRAMENTO — As the country approaches Election Day 2026, attacks on democracy by the federal government have grown more severe and are happening at an increasingly rapid pace — including Trump’s DOJ trying (and failing) three times just last week to throw out 20,000 votes across California they claimed with “high confidence” were noncitizens who received a ballot. This was proven false almost immediately by their own staff, and multiple federal court judges have rejected these attempts.

Anticipating these attempts at interference, Governor Gavin Newsom took early, proactive action this year, signing Senate Bill 73 to begin protecting voter rolls, election technology, and election workers ahead of the June primary. Shortly after, during his speech recognizing the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Governor called for additional legislation to create new felonies for anyone who is found guilty of meddling in the electoral process — a law he signed just two months later as part of a 13 bill election protection bill package that comprehensively and resolutely safeguards California’s electoral system. To supplement these new protections, the Governor included nearly $40 million in his final budget that went to every county across the Golden State to support the hiring of additional staff and acquisition of new technology and resources to speed up the process for processing and counting votes, support local voter education efforts to share how and when eligible voters can exercise their constitutional right to vote, and assist the joint election security task force being coordinated by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) in partnership with the California Department of Justice and Secretary of State to identify and combat misinformation that may spread unchecked on social media platforms given lack of guardrails in the algorithms.

And over the weekend, Governor Newsom sent a letter to the Chief District Judges for the four federal district courts in California highlighting resources for evaluating requests for search warrants for election materials to ensure California’s election integrity is upheld and USDOJ doesn’t pervert the criminal process to prevent votes from eligible voters from being counted and results certified.

New laws in effect for Election Day

• AB 282 (Pellerin) — Makes it a felony 1) to seize or cause or assist in the seizure of ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before election results are certified by the elections official and 2) for any person with authority to direct another person subject to their supervision or authority to seize ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before election results are certified. 

• SB 259 (Wahab) — Makes it a felony for a person with authority to direct a person subject to their supervision or authority to interfere with the delivery or return of a vote by mail (VBM) ballot. This bill also makes it a misdemeanor for a person who has charge of a VBM ballot to interfere with its delivery to a voter. 

• AB 502 (Pellerin) — Makes modifications to provisions of law that prohibit anyone, with malice, from knowingly distributing a campaign advertisement or other election communication containing materially deceptive content unless certain conditions are met.

• AB 730 (Berman, 2019) / AB 686 (Berman, 2026) — Prohibits through January 1, 2031, the distribution of materially deceptive audio or visual media (i.e., “deepfakes”) with actual malice with the intent to injure a candidate’s reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against a candidate, unless the media includes a disclosure that it has been manipulated.

• AB 1664 (Jackson) — Requires a local agency, political subdivision, or elections official to provide notice to the Secretary of State and the California Attorney General immediately, but no later than one calendar day, after becoming aware of any warrant, subpoena, or active law enforcement investigation pertaining to the search, seizure, or retention of any election records or certified voting technology.

• SB 884 (Umberg) — For any regular or special election, beginning with the November 3, 2026, General Election through 2029, requires all VBM ballot dropoff locations to be open beginning at least 30 days before the election; prohibits law enforcement officers from making arrests within 200 feet of a polling place on Election Day, except for a crime related to disrupting the operation of the polling place or a crime against a person or property; and authorizes a county board of supervisors to extend the prohibition on electioneering activities to up to 200 feet of the specified voting locations; authorizes a county elections official to extend the time for closing the polls at any polling place if the county elections official determines that voting at the polling place was disrupted as a result of a violation of the prohibitions on arrests or electioneering activities near polling places. By state law, state and federal results cannot be released until all polling locations statewide have closed — so as to not impact the outcome of the election. Not releasing results until all polls close has been the law since 1999 (Elec. Code, § 15152.) — polling locations have historically been held open due to severe weather, electrical interruptions, etc. This new law provides an additional solution for local officials who, in consultation with their county counsel, will be best positioned to react to developing situations that may threaten the right to vote.

• SB 1418 (Cervantes) — Makes it a crime to take election materials or voting technology from the custody of election officials and expands the types of materials required for preservation if an election contest or criminal proceeding is ongoing. 

• SB 1420 (Richardson) — Requires the Secretary of State to promulgate regulations establishing uniform procedures for election officials that allow a voter to vote their VBM ballot at a polling location without the VBM ballot’s identification envelope; and requires information to be included in the state voter information guide about early in-person voting opportunities.

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.

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.

Coordination through Office of Emergency Services

The California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) works year round to keep Californians safe and that includes working with state and law enforcement partners to ensure safe and free elections. Through its State Threat Assessment Center (STAC) and California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC), along with the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office, CalOES works to combat cyber security interference, inform partners of mis and dis-information that may threaten elections, address impacts from weather and other natural events, and thwart any threats to voters, election workers, and voting places.

Governor Newsom’s record of defending democracy

In addition to the 15 bills signed this year and nearly $40 million invested, 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.

• AB 2355 (Carrillo) — requires that electoral advertisements using AI-generated or substantially altered content feature a disclosure that the material has been altered. The bill authorizes the Fair Political Practices Commission to enforce a violation of these disclosure requirements by seeking injunctive relief to compel compliance or pursuing other remedies available to the commission under the Political Reform Act.

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.