Calif.: Newsom signs bill limiting law enforcement access to ballots
OAN Staff Lillian Mann
2:19 PM – Thursday, May 28, 2026
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation to tighten California’s election security, limiting authorities’ access to ballots, voter lists, rosters, or certified voting technology, ahead of the June 2nd state primary election.
The bill signed on Wednesday would prohibit anyone — particularly federal officers — from becoming involved in election administration, while allowing exceptions in cases of urgent public health or safety concerns.
Furthermore, the law states that if packages containing voted ballots are removed from the custody of election officials, civil penalties for ballot custody violations may still apply, with fines of up to $50,000.
“We have to clarify the rules of engagement. That’s why this legislation is important. There are fines associated with it, criminal fines, and jail time, three years,” Newsom (D-Calif.) said at Wednesday’s signing ceremony.
Senate Bill 73 — which will take effect immediately — follows Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of 650,000 ballots from last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election. However, the probe was later stopped due to legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Sheriff Bianco (R-Calif.) — who is running for California governor this November — said he seized the ballots as part of an investigation into alleged voting discrepancies, though election officials later disputed those claims.
Bianco had referred to the freezing of the investigation as “politically motivated.”
Meanwhile the measure also directs the attorney general to provide guidance to local election workers on responding to requests from law enforcement.
“SB73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secured and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Calif.), one of the primary authors of the law.
The signing of the bill came the same day Assembly Democrats advanced 23 separate bills related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Assembly floor.
The proposals include limiting the presence of federal law enforcement near polling places, barring ICE agents from serving as California peace officers, requiring hotels to notify workers and guests when ICE agents are staying on site and denying state tax breaks to companies that contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The bill has since faced some bipartisan pushback.
“Don’t do that, man,” Assembly member James Gallagher (R-Calif,) said. “There’s several people on that side of the aisle I’m looking at. You know that’s wrong.”
“This is a ridiculous law, and the reason it’s ridiculous is because we shouldn’t live in these kinds of times,” Assembly member Isaac Bryan (D-Calif.) said. “In this moment, it shifts from being ridiculous and posturing to critically necessary because what we are seeing is unprecedented.”
Assembly member Davis Tangipa (R-Calif.) also noted that the Democrat legislation will not hold up in the courts.
“A lot of the bills and a lot of what’s happened in the court already ruled that the state can’t supersede the federal government in a lot of the federal enforcement that we’re seeing there,” Tangipa said.
Trump administration officials, however, have added that they do not plan to deploy federal immigration agents to polling places across the U.S. — despite it being a concern raised earlier this year by Democrats.
“We have to be prepared for everything,” Newsom adding that “there’s no rules anymore with the Trump administration.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Associated Press on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is committed to ensuring Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections.
“Instead of levying false attacks at the President, Newscum should look in the mirror,” she said in a statement.
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