New California Law Bans Law Enforcement Interference in State Elections

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Wednesday that prohibits law enforcement officers from interfering in California elections, just in time for the June 2 primary elections. The law, effective immediately, makes it a crime to remove ballots from the custody of a local election official, as Riverside County Sheriff and gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco did earlier this year when he seized over 600,000 ballots from the county's voter registrar.

Bianco claimed he was looking for evidence of voter fraud, but there were no indications of any irregularities. "We have to step up and set limits.

We have to clarify the rules of the game," Newsom told reporters before signing the law. "It's a warning to those who think they can follow the Trump administration's orders." State lawmakers originally introduced Senate Bill 73 to guard against potential federal interference in California elections, given the Trump administration's animosity toward the state and the president's desire to keep Congress in Republican hands.

But Bianco's ballot seizure turned a hypothetical threat into a real one, prompting lawmakers to fast-track the bill so it could take effect before election day. The new law prohibits county registrars from handing over ballots or voting equipment to law enforcement officers like Bianco or his deputies.

Riverside County Registrar Art Tinoco would have violated the law by allowing the sheriff's department to take the ballots, despite the search warrant they presented. "Voters should never have to wonder if ballots were tampered with," said Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a Democratic co-author and former Santa Cruz County registrar.

"And law enforcement powers should never be misused in a way that jeopardizes the integrity of our democratic process." The law also reiterates that the attorney general, secretary of state, or local county election officials can sue any person, business, or entity that removes "a package containing election ballots" from an election official's custody. Election and voting advocates praised the Legislature for responding quickly to what they called an "unprecedented" act by local law enforcement.

"That had never happened anywhere in the country," said Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. She added that the Legislature's decision to push the law through shows voters that "they are aware that something unprecedented has happened." Lawmakers included safeguards allowing the attorney general and secretary of state to override a county election official's authority in certain circumstances, such as if a registrar allowed armed personnel to station themselves near polling places.

These override privileges are deliberate preventive measures, likely motivated by the threat of a rogue county election official like Shasta County's controversial voter registrar, Clint Curtis. Curtis, a self-proclaimed "election integrity advocate," lived in Florida and had no election administration experience before the county board of supervisors appointed him in 2024.

According to Alexander, lawmakers aim to ensure state officials can "override any local attempt to undermine state rules." "This is not the first time the state has responded to events in Shasta County." Curtis has aligned with 2020 election deniers, publicly expressed skepticism about voting machines, and significantly reduced the number of ballot drop boxes in the county. He faces multiple allegations of workplace violence and harassment, including threats to drag employees out of his office by their hair.

Curtis has denied all allegations. The new law also prohibits anyone from allowing a law enforcement officer to "access, disrupt, modify, or take possession" of any voting technology without a court order.

Another provision bans election observers from challenging voters' signatures. Last fall, the U.S.

Department of Justice, at the request of the California Republican Party, announced it would send election observers to California for the special election on Proposition 50, sparking fears that President Donald Trump was interfering to alter the outcome. Ballot seizure is just one way outside agents could interfere in California elections, Alexander said.

Another is the state's lengthy vote-counting process, which has fueled conspiracy theories and unfounded claims that results cannot be trusted. Advocates are urging Newsom to include about $55 million in the state budget for county election offices to buy new equipment and hire more staff to speed up counting.

Newsom told reporters Wednesday that funding negotiations are "very, very positive" and that "we're going to reach an agreement on the figure very, very soon."