Elections.

Senator Cervantes and Assembly Member Pellerin frame a sweeping reorganization of California’s election framework, beginning with new rapid-notice requirements for any state or local office that becomes the subject of a federal-election-related court action. The measure directs such agencies to notify the Secretary of State and the Attorney General within three court days and to share a draft settlement or consent decree with those offices at least 14 court days before any court-approved agreement, with those communications exempt from public disclosure. In parallel, the bill treats a broad range of election duties as ministerial and nondiscretionary and establishes confidentiality provisions around federally related communications.

The proposal also tightens and clarifies reporting, posting, and oversight procedures for election results. After completing the count, elections officials must add write-in and certified paper-ballot results and publicly post the results at the counting site. They must prepare a certified statement of the results and submit it to the governing body within defined timeframes, and to transmit specified results to the Secretary of State electronically within a fixed period, with a publicly accessible download of the certified results maintained on the official website for a decade, provided the system can generate such a file. If an official fails to meet these duties, the bill authorizes the Secretary of State to alert the county district attorney or the Attorney General and to assist the official in discharge of duties.

On voting-system policy, the measure shifts the standards framework to require voting standards that meet minimum federal safeguards and embed best practices in election technology, while encouraging the development and use of nonproprietary source-code for greater auditability. Local jurisdictions may use public funds to purchase and maintain certified systems and to support research and pilots of nonproprietary systems that disclose source code. A comprehensive source-code escrow regime would require exact copies of the approved source code and build instructions to be deposited in an escrow facility within a specified period after certification, with the Secretary of State establishing related definitions, facility requirements, and access rules. The secretary would also have defined authority to ensure escrow compliance and to pursue injunctive relief against parties not meeting obligations.

The measure expands certain offenses related to safeguarding polling places and ballot handling, extending penalties to uniformed law enforcement officers and federal officers stationed near an elections office or polling place without authorization, and adding offenses related to collecting ballots or returning ballots via envelopes designed to deceive voters about official status. It also revises defect-reporting duties for certified systems, requiring vendors or jurisdictions to notify the Secretary of State and local officials of any defect, fault, or failure within a defined window. The act includes procedural provisions about costs and reimbursements, affirming that no general reimbursement is required for mandated costs, while preserving the possibility of reimbursement if the state mandates determination concludes otherwise; it also declares the act an urgency measure with immediate effect to address a statewide special election in November 2025.