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Brittany Stonesifer, a voting rights advocate with nonprofit California Common Cause, credited California\u2019s \u201cstrong ballot chain-of-custody laws\u201d for why legal action to halt Bianco\u2019s investigation happened swiftly. Every state has election material custody laws, which generally ensure ballots are handled by the right people at each step, from where they\u2019re printed to where they\u2019re stored. She said other states worried about actions similar to Bianco\u2019s can look to California\u2019s laws to strengthen their own.<\/p>\n
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Stonesifer encouraged state or county election offices worried about possible intimidation from the federal government to have thorough training and plans covering volunteer poll workers, state attorney general\u2019s offices and registrars. Mullin said that\u2019s work that is already happening across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Rep.]()
<\/p>\n
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, speaks alongside his colleagues during a press conference following a \u201cshadow hearing\u201d on how House Democrats \u201cwill continue fighting to protect our democracy\u201d with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi inside the Baxter Appellate courtroom at UC Law San Francisco in San Francisco, California Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Elected officials and experts Thursday also staunchly supported protecting Americans\u2019 ability to vote by mail, which upwards of 80% of California voters do.<\/p>\n
Last week, Trump signed a sweeping executive order that directed the U.S. Postal Service to send ballots only to voters who appear on a list created by states after an individual’s citizenship is confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security. The order is already facing multiple legal challenges and the president, by law, has a limited role over elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s just an indication of how little the president actually understands any of this, but also how much he is focused on making certain that certain Americans can’t vote,\u201d Morelle said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Trump has claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail is riddled with fraud. He\u2019s attacked it for years, blaming it for why he lost the 2020 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Brian]()
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Brian Renfroe, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers testifies during a \u201cshadow hearing\u201d on how House Democrats \u201cwill continue fighting to protect our democracy\u201d with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi inside the Baxter Appellate courtroom at UC Law San Francisco in San Francisco, California Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Brian Renfroe, the head of the National Association of Letter Carriers union, testified Thursday that the U.S. Postal Service isn\u2019t even sure how it could meet the order\u2019s requirements because it doesn\u2019t have any such mechanisms in place. Renfroe said the Postal Service is currently complying with the order as the legal challenges go through court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is very concerning to attempt to invoke a beloved agency that has always been free of any sort of partisan political activity \u2014 that the American people trust \u2014 to do something, such as verify voter eligibility,\u201d Renfroe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Experts, such as Rory Little, a constitutional law professor at UC Law in San Francisco, slammed the Trump-backed SAVE Act, or Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, that would require documents to prove citizenship beyond just a driver\u2019s license or state ID.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe legislation should be called the Fool America Act, because it fools many Americans and fuels paranoia with foolish falsehoods,\u201d Little said. \u201cIf enacted, it will have fooled many Americans who will soon discover they are harmed by it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Professor Rory Little, UC Law Cotchett Chair Emeritus and Sullivan Professor of Law sports a tie depicting the famous painting Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States from 1942 on his necktie while testifying during a \u201cshadow hearing\u201d on how House Democrats \u201cwill continue fighting to protect our democracy\u201d with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi inside the Baxter Appellate courtroom at UC Law San Francisco in San Francisco, California Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Little pointed to those who have changed their names after getting married. Many women who have changed their last names following marriage might be surprised to learn the proposed law would require them to go to an election office to register in person in order to vote, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stonesifer said those who have changed their last names would need to get an updated document in order to vote \u2014 the birth certificate with a maiden name would not suffice, for example. New documents cost money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a poll tax,\u201d Stonesifer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The SAVE Act passed the House in April but faces roadblocks in the Senate, where it requires bipartisan support to pass. Democratic leaders Thursday said even if it doesn\u2019t pass, it still symbolizes Trump\u2019s priorities and attitude ahead of the midterms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Brittany]()
<\/p>\n
Brittany Stonesifer of California Democracy Project and California Common Cause testifies during a \u201cshadow hearing\u201d on how House Democrats \u201cwill continue fighting to protect our democracy\u201d with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi inside the Baxter Appellate courtroom at UC Law San Francisco in San Francisco, California Thursday, April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Democrats told the hearing\u2019s attendees, who were mostly law school students, to check their voting registration now and to vote early this election cycle so the party can take back control of the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pelosi said she regularly is asked by constituents whether \u201cthere will even be an election\u201d this November. She answers with, \u201cof course,\u201d but said that Democrats need to be prepared for Trump and Republican leaders to challenge the results. That\u2019s why the so-called \u201cshadow hearings\u201d are crucial, leaders said. Shadow hearings like Thursday\u2019s are unofficial hearings held by the minority party in the House to investigate topics the majority party won\u2019t hear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur biggest strength is our outside mobilization,\u201d Pelosi said, \u201cthat people know that something is being done to protect the election and that we all have to be a part of it, whether that\u2019s being a poll worker \u2026 or just encouraging people to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(From left) Ranking Member Joe Morelle (NY-25), Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Kevin MulIin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,204,13,101,103,102,104,106,105,2013],"class_list":{"0":"post-260574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-election","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-us-and-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}