{"id":280668,"date":"2026-04-22T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280668\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:00:09","slug":"landmark-state-voting-rights-laws-move-forward-in-ca-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280668\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmark State Voting Rights Laws Move Forward in CA Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read a PDF of our statement here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Two-Thirds Of Voters Say Democracy is Under Attack<\/p>\n

Democracy advocates celebrated this week as the Senate Standing Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments passed Senate Bills 1164 and 1360 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside). The timely legislative action, sponsored by the California Democracy Partnership, updates the landmark California Voting Rights Act to add new protections against voter discrimination and bolster our democracy which is under threat from unrelenting federal attacks.<\/p>\n

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 comes as recent polling<\/a> found that two-thirds of California voters believe our democracy is under attack and voiced overwhelming support for state lawmakers to strengthen voter protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of unrelenting federal attacks on Black voters, California can reassert its national leadership and once again set an example for pro-voter states by expanding and modernizing its landmark California Voting Rights Act,\u201d said Adam Lioz, Senior Policy Counsel for the Legal Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot stand by while Donald Trump and his allies attempt to dismantle our democracy piece by piece,\u201d said Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), the author of the California Voting Rights Act of 2026. \u201cI\u2019m proud to author the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 to preserve democracy in California. We must never allow the suppression or dilution of the votes of historically disenfranchised communities or discrimination against limited-English-proficient voters. CVRA 2026 will bolster defenses against voter suppression and improve access to the ballot by ensuring more California voters can access election materials in their native languages. We must act against the chaos emanating from the White House and protect the essential right of California voters to choose their leaders at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CVRA of 2026 will:<\/p>\n

Prohibit Voter Suppression: Confront threats to voter participation and access to voting opportunities that occur through discriminatory barriers to the ballot.
\nProhibit Vote Dilution: Protect against district maps or election systems that weaken or silence the voting power of communities of color.
\nStop Voting Discrimination Before It Occurs: Require jurisdictions with a recent history of discrimination to obtain approval before making certain changes to voting practices.
\nEnsure Voters Can Directly Protect Their Rights: As voters\u2019 ability to use the federal VRA comes under attack, ensure Californians can go to state court to enforce voting rights.
\nRequire Courts to Interpret Laws in Favor of Voters: Direct courts to interpret laws and exercise discretion in favor of broad access and equal participation in the democratic process.
\nGuarantee the federal VRA\u2019s language assistance requirements under state law: Codify Section 203 of the VRA\u2019s requirement to provide in-language votable ballots and all other election materials to groups that meet a certain threshold in a county.
\nExpand upon current Section 203 language coverage: Lower Section 203\u2019s numerical threshold for assistance from 10K to 5K of adult citizens in a county, and expand upon Section 203\u2019s language minority categories to include all language groups.
\nStreamline and clarify the steps for language groups to receive assistance in voting: Gives groups not adequately captured in the Census the opportunity to show, through other sources, that they should qualify for language assistance.<\/p>\n

The California Democracy Partnership<\/a>, a growing group of civil justice, voting rights and labor organizations, was represented at the hearing by Kristin Nimmers of the California Black Power Network, Adam Lioz of the Legal Defense Fund, Ramla Sahid of Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, Julia Gomez ACLU of Southern California and Deanna Kitamura, Asian Law Caucus. They emphasized the importance of passing the CVRA of 2026 urgently to modernize our state\u2019s voting rights act and protect vulnerable populations from the constant barrage of federal attacks on our democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CVRA of 2026 is a vital step toward a more just and inclusive democracy. It closes loopholes by strengthening the CVRA to cover district-based systems, stops repeat violations before they occur, and gives communities and individuals stronger tools to fight voter suppression. By ensuring our laws are interpreted to protect voters, this legislation continues historical efforts to build a democracy that is upheld by fairness, accountability, and due process,\u201d added Kristin Nimmers, Policy & Campaigns Manager of the Black Power Network.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco seized over 650,000 ballots<\/a> cast in a 2025 special election, claiming he was investigating election fraud. So-called fraud has been the motivation behind many recent attempts to upend our democratic process, but in reality recent studies by the Brennan Center<\/a> note that instances of fraud were incredibly rare. An individual is more likely to be struck by lightning than to cast a fraudulent ballot.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 1164 (Cervantes) was also heard and passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, in addition to Senate Elections. SB 1164 and 1360 both now move on to the Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the California Democracy Partnership here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF)<\/a> is the nation\u2019s first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF\u2019s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF\u2019s archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF\u2019s Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read a PDF of our statement here. Two-Thirds Of Voters Say Democracy is Under Attack Democracy advocates celebrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-280668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280668","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=280668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}