![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791134896_491_21271fb1-6e06-4bcf-8b56-97b158a0e14b_1759272616.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOrange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a candidate for California secretary of state, outlined his qualifications, election reform priorities, and vision for the office during an interview on California Politics 360.<\/p>\n
Wagner, a Republican, is challenging Democrat and current Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who is running for reelection.<\/p>\n
Wagner detailed his extensive experience in public office, including roles as a community college board member, state legislator, mayor of Irvine, and county supervisor. <\/p>\n
“I’ve seen this government at all different levels, including up here in Sacramento and what works and doesn’t work,” Wagner said. He expressed concerns about the current state of the Secretary of State’s office, stating, “We are not getting the quality elections that we should have. We are not getting the kind of business attention that we should have out of the Secretary of State’s office.” <\/p>\n
Wagner pointed to his track record of addressing inefficiencies in government, such as paying off debt without raising taxes during his time on a college board and delivering on the Irvine Great Park project as mayor. He also cited his role in establishing the Orange County Veterans Cemetery. <\/p>\n
“Lots of experiences in government at all levels. I think I would be a nice fit for the Secretary of State’s office, and it needs some help,” Wagner said. <\/p>\n
Discussing election concerns, Wagner said, “A lot of what we do wrong with our elections currently, they give people a feeling of a lack of confidence in them.”<\/p>\n
He noted the presence of over 870,000 “ghost voters” on California’s rolls, citing Judicial Watch as the source of the figure. Wagner explained, “A ghost voter is someone who has passed away, who has moved out of state. And we know a lot of people are leaving California, and then they don’t clean up the voting records.” He emphasized that existing state and federal laws allow for voter roll maintenance without requiring new legislation. <\/p>\n
Wagner also said he plans to support Proposition 39, which seeks to implement voter ID requirements in California. <\/p>\n
“Proposition 39 is a very straightforward, very clean initiative,” Wagner said, adding that it would provide free IDs to those unable to obtain one. He shared an example from Orange County, where a dog was found on the voting rolls due to a lack of verification. “Voter ID is out there. It is a common sense idea. We’ll give you a free one. It’s not going to stop anybody from voting,” Wagner said. <\/p>\n
Regarding California’s slow election result reporting, Wagner criticized the current system, which he said took 38 days to certify the last election. <\/p>\n
“Most states in the nation don’t do it that way. They start processing earlier, not counting, but processing so that we don’t have those delays,” Wagner said. He noted that both Gov. Gavin Newsom and The New York Times have called for faster vote counting in California. <\/p>\n
Wagner also discussed the Secretary of State’s role in business regulation and permitting, calling California “a terribly business-unfriendly state.” <\/p>\n
He said, “I want to make the Secretary of State’s office, which is the first place folks go when they’re trying to set up shop here in California, the most business-friendly it’s been in years.” Wagner acknowledged the need for technological upgrades to the office’s outdated systems, citing a nonprofit’s call for $55 million in infrastructure improvements. <\/p>\n
While Wagner credited current Secretary of State Shirley Weber for pushing back against claims of widespread election fraud, he emphasized the need to address voter dissatisfaction. “The vast, vast majority of our elections are not tainted,” Wagner said. “But to be fair, the vote they don’t count is the one you don’t cast.” <\/p>\n
Wagner proposed making the Secretary of State’s office nonpartisan, similar to California’s state superintendent position. <\/p>\n
“I’d like to see the Secretary of State’s office be nonpartisan so that it’s not a Republican or a Democrat calling an election for a Republican,” Wagner said. He highlighted his ability to work across party lines, noting that a majority-Democrat board twice elected him chairman during his tenure as a county supervisor. <\/p>\n
Wagner concluded by emphasizing his commitment to restoring public confidence in California’s election system. <\/p>\n
“The voters of California are the ones who need to count on their system. They need to know that the person who raises that hand and takes that oath of office is the one that got the most votes,” Wagner said. <\/p>\n
Wagner also addressed concerns about federal involvement in California’s elections, stating, “The Constitution is very clear. The states are supposed to run their elections subject to changes made by Congress, subject to things Congress says, not the executive.” He emphasized his ability to work with Democrats in the legislature, saying, “There\u2019s a good-government component to what I\u2019m trying to do that is not Republican or Democrat. It is just good.” <\/p>\n
KCRA 3 Political Director Ashley Zavala <\/a>reports in-depth coverage of top California politics and policy issues. She is also the host of “California Politics 360<\/a>.” Get informed each Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on KCRA 3. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don Wagner explains why he should be California’s next Secretary of State | CA Politics 360 Orange County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21200,7,1708,9,8,11751,16613,13216,3413,6352,17980,6704,204,139476,189655,457,189656,189652,405,2462,473,1741,189654,346,611,106721,182250,189653,106351,6049,121,8353,225,142597,54524,86245],"class_list":["post-484984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-business-regulation","tag-california","tag-california-elections","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics-360","tag-california-secretary","tag-california-secretary-of-state","tag-concern","tag-confidence","tag-democrat","tag-don-wagner","tag-election","tag-election-reform","tag-free-one","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-ghost-voter","tag-ghost-voters","tag-government","tag-irvine","tag-kcra","tag-lot","tag-nonpartisan-office","tag-office","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-supervisor","tag-proposition-39","tag-public-confidence","tag-republican-candidate","tag-role","tag-sacramento","tag-shirley-weber","tag-state","tag-vote-counting","tag-voter-id","tag-voter-rolls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484984","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=484984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}