(The Center Square) \u2013 With just days to go until California\u2019s June 2 primary election, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an election protections bill into law that aims to prevent federal law enforcement agencies from interfering with the state\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 73<\/a>\u00a0prevents law enforcement agencies and officers from conducting certain activities that the governor\u2019s office described as efforts to undermine or disrupt elections.<\/p>\n \u201cJust six days out from the election, we thought this was a timely bill,\u201d Newsom said during a press conference held in Sacramento on Thursday<\/a>. \u201cI just want to express gratitude to our two senators and assemblywoman for their outstanding work to address the anxiety that has been expressed almost universally about what\u2019s going on with fair and free elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Bill 73, which was authored by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, and Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, provides guidance to county elections officials and election site managers about how to handle requests from law enforcement agencies to access election areas and ballots. It also prevents law enforcement officers from interfering with the work of election workers, prevents election observers from challenging a signature on a vote-by-mail ballot and keeps law enforcement from taking or modifying ballots and voting technology, according to a legislative analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, California is standing with courage, standing with urgency, to protect voters\u2019 rights to cast a ballot free from intimidation or interference,\u201d Cervantes said during the Thursday press conference. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen an incident in my own home county of Riverside where ballots were seized and the chain of custody was broken. That is against the law.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the bill analysis, a group in Southern California’s Riverside County raised alarm earlier this year over a discrepancy in the number of ballots cast in the November 2025 special election. A difference of nearly 46,000 ballots was disputed between numbers reported by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters from the actual number cast. The Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Office obtained a warrant from the Riverside Superior Court to seize 1,000 boxes of ballots and ballot materials. In April, the California Supreme Court ordered the sheriff\u2019s office to halt its investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the sheriff in Riverside seized the 650,000 ballots from the elections official, I was horrified,\u201d Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz and chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, said at the press conference. \u201cBreaking that chain of custody breaks the trust that voters have in our elections. Election workers should never fear political intimidation for simply doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n The sheriff is Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor.<\/p>\n The new law comes months after President Donald Trump sent federal officials to monitor California\u2019s special mid-decade redistricting election in November 2-25, in which voters approved overwhelmingly for newly drawn congressional districts that gave Democrats the chance to pick up five new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n