California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill to strengthen safeguards for the state’s elections ahead of next week's primary, citing what he characterized as “legitimate anxiety” over potential efforts by the Trump Administration and its “acolytes” to interfere in the democratic process.
“California will not allow our elections to be commandeered by political intimidation, abuse of power, or chaotic interference from extremists chasing conspiracy theories,” Newsom said in a statement following the Wednesday bill signing. “This law protects voters, election workers, and the integrity of the democratic process from election-deniers who want to undermine democracy.”
The newly enacted law, which comes after Sheriff Chad Bianco's contentious seizure of ballots in Riverside County last month, prohibits law enforcement officers, including federal agents, from accessing, modifying, or taking possession of voter rolls or voting technology without a court order. It also bars them from “interfering with the administration of an election” except in the instance of “urgent” public safety threats.
The law additionally aims to strengthen protections for ballots’ chain of custody, making it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine, up to three years in prison, or both to knowingly remove ballots from the custody of an elections official.
For voting by mail in particular, which President Donald Trump has frequently targeted and sought to restrict, the law limits challenges to mail-in ballots by prohibiting election observers from making such challenges on the basis that the signature on a return envelope does not match the one that appears in the voters’ registration records.
Read more: Trump Claims Mail-In Voting Is ‘Corrupt.’ But Research Indicates Fraud Is Very, Very Rare
The law also requires the California Attorney General to issue guidance on how to deal with law enforcement seeking to enter areas where ballots are cast or counted.
The measure takes effect immediately––which the bill described as “necessary” in anticipation of the fast-approaching June 2 primary, which will see millions of Californians cast ballots in state and federal races.
Speaking in his office after signing the bill, Newsom outlined “legitimate reasons we need to do this.”
Among them, the Governor referenced what he called the “abuse” in Riverside County last month, when Sheriff Bianco, a Republican running for governor, led the seizure of around 650,000 ballots from the registrar of voters after a local election watchdog, Riverside Election Integrity Team, claimed to have found discrepancies in the tally of votes in the 2025 special election that led to the state’s approval of redrawn voting maps via Proposition 50.
"We've seen an incident in my own home county of Riverside where ballots were seized and the chain of custody was broken,” state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “That's against the law. SB-73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secure and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box."
Newsom also called out a “pattern of actions” by the Trump Administration and the President’s allies, including attempts to “access the voting rolls of our state,” as well as Trump’s efforts to “vandalize trust as it relates to vote by mail and so many other categories,” his aggressive push for Congress to pass new voter-identification requirements, and the partisan redistricting battle he sparked by pushing Republican-led states to redraw the maps to bolster the party’s electoral chances.
The Trump Administration has made a concerted effort to access voter data from around the country since the President, who has repeatedly spread false claims about voter fraud and election interference, returned to office last year. A Brennan Center study, last updated this week, found that the Justice Department has demanded that almost every state and Washington, D.C., hand over election records and data, including voter lists from previous elections and voting equipment. The government has doubled down on those efforts by suing 30 states and D.C. for not complying. Several suits have since been dismissed, while several states have provided or said they would hand over the demanded data.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in January seized ballots in Georgia from the 2020 general election in an apparent attempt to pursue Trump’s claims that President Joe Biden’s win was based on rampant voter fraud. The Administration has also acquired 2020 election-related records from Arizona, and reportedly attempted to do the same in Nevada.
Newsom also made reference to the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s order to suspend primary elections in the state to allow lawmakers to draw new congressional maps following the decision. Newsom, stating that Landry made the move with “the intended purpose of eliminating black representation in his state,” called it “Jim Crow 2.0.”
“These guys are not screwing around, they're ruthless,” said Newsom. “So it's in that spirit that I'm signing this, sober about what we're up against.”
Early voting is already underway in California with less than a week before Tuesday’s primary, and roughly 10% of ballots have been cast statewide, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office.
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