Follow-up: Newsom Details California Election Safeguards: Nearly $40 Million to Counties, New Felonies for Election Interference

Sacramento, California — On November 2, the day before the November 3 general election, the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement summarizing the state's year-long work to deliver a free and fair election: working with the Legislature, the Governor enacted election-protection legislation creating new felonies for attempted election interference, and invested nearly $40 million across the state to support additional county staff and modern technology to speed up counting and enhance election security.

According to the statement, Newsom signed Senate Bill 73 earlier this year to begin protecting voter rolls, election technology, and election workers ahead of the June primary. Shortly after, in his speech recognizing the 250th anniversary of the United States, he called for additional legislation to create new felonies for anyone found guilty of meddling in the electoral process — a law he signed two months later as part of a 13-bill election protection package.

The statement itemized the nearly $40 million: $29 million for counties to increase staffing, technology and equipment to speed up counting; $5 million for voter outreach and education at the county level; $5 million for statewide voter outreach and education through the Secretary of State's office; and $750,000 to combat mis- and disinformation. The funding also supports a joint election security task force coordinated by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) in partnership with the California Department of Justice and the Secretary of State.

The statement also noted that over the weekend Newsom sent a letter to the chief district judges of California's four federal district courts highlighting resources for evaluating requests for search warrants for election materials, a step GSM reported earlier.

On the federal side, the statement said President Trump's Department of Justice tried — and failed — three times last week to throw out some 20,000 California votes it claimed, with "high confidence," were cast by noncitizens, a claim proven false almost immediately by the department's own staff and rejected by multiple federal judges. GSM has previously reported the Justice Department's emergency application to the Supreme Court and federal court rulings rejecting its bid to block California counting.

"California is taking the security of our election seriously, particularly as the threats from the President have increased in the last month. No state has done more to prepare, and we continue to stand ready to defend democracy — already having beat back Trump's DOJ three times just last week," Newsom said in the statement. "Trump may try to meddle with the ballots in California, but if he does, he cannot pardon those who help him and you can be sure as hell we will prosecute them. Californians deserve a free and fair election, one they know is safe from meddling, and that is exactly what we will deliver — just as we always have."

New laws in effect for Election Day listed in the statement include AB 282, which makes it a felony to seize, or cause or assist in the seizure of, ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before results are certified; SB 259, which makes it a felony for a person in authority to interfere with the delivery or return of a vote-by-mail ballot; AB 1664, which requires notice to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General within one calendar day of any warrant, subpoena, or investigation targeting election records or voting technology; and SB 1418, which makes it a crime to take election materials or voting technology from election officials' custody.

Under SB 884, beginning with the November 3, 2026 general election, all vote-by-mail ballot drop-off locations must open at least 30 days before the election, law enforcement officers are barred from making arrests within 200 feet of a polling place on Election Day except for specified crimes, and a county elections official may extend polling-place hours if voting was disrupted. The statement also noted that under state law, state and federal results cannot be released until all polling locations statewide have closed.

The statement also listed rules on deceptive election content, including AB 502 and the deepfake provisions of AB 730 and AB 686, and said Cal OES, through its State Threat Assessment Center and California Cybersecurity Integration Center, works with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General's Office to combat cybersecurity interference, mis- and disinformation, and weather and other natural-event impacts on voters, election workers, and voting places.

(Source: Office of the Governor of California)

Source: Office of the Governor of California

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 加州州长 Gavin Newsom 签署法案（资料图：2019年签署消防与急救人员保障法案时摄，加州政府摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / California Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation (file photo: signing a firefighter and first responder protection bill in 2019; Government of California, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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