Ahead of U.S. Democracy Day, California lawmakers take steps to strengthen a fragile process

This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.

A majority of Californians, and Americans at large, say they have faith in the electoral process. But efforts to undermine election integrity — or violent reaction to the results — are a looming possibility.

In a September report by the Safeguarding Democracy Project and UCLA Law, a bipartisan committee of experts warned public officials, tech companies and journalists that in a post-2020 and post-January 6 landscape, election integrity in the United States is under serious threat.

“No longer can we take for granted that people will accept election results as legitimate. The United States faces continued threats to peaceful transitions of power after election authorities (or courts) have declared a presidential election winner,” the panel concluded.

The report’s release coincides with International Day of Democracy. And both coincide with the end of the 2022-23 California legislative session, where lawmakers sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk a series of measures that will directly affect elections, electoral processes, and the fragile state of democracy in the nation’s most populous state.

Here are some of the bills intended to bolster democracy in California.

Assembly Bill 421: Ballot referendums

Assembly Majority Leader Isaac Bryan’s bill will simplify ballot language on the statewide referendums that are an integral feature of state policymaking.

The desired outcome, according to the Bryan, is that campaigns (particularly those with wealthy corporate backers) will no longer be able to mislead voters with complicated wording.

Instead of the traditional “Yes” or “No” question, voters will choose between “Keep the law” or “Overturn the law.”

Unions, environmentalists and other left-leaning groups that support the legislature’s Democratic supermajority, say signature-gathering for referendums favors corporations and wealthy conservative groups. The Senate approved the bill 29-8 on September 5, surpassing the two-thirds majority required, and the Assembly concurred with a vote of 54-17. Newsom signed it on September 8, and its changes will apply to the 2024 election.

The bill’s final version was significantly watered down from Bryan’s initial draft, which also sought to amend the signature-gathering process for referendum petitions. AB 421 in its original form would have required updated certification requirements for paid signature gatherers, and campaigns’ disclosure of their top three donors. It would also have mandated that at least 10% of signatures be gathered by volunteers.

“It feels like a light step because we were so ambitious. That speaks to the change that’s needed,” Bryan said.

“Did we go for everything and the kitchen sink at the beginning? We absolutely did, because the people deserve for us to fix these processes completely.”

Assembly Bill 969: Voting systems

Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin, who spent 27 years working in the Santa Cruz County elections office, watched as the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted earlier this year to scrap their voting system in favor of a manual hand-tally.

She responded with a new law.

Assembly Bill 969 will require counties to use a certified voting system (manual tally is not certified by the state of California), and make it illegal for counties to scrap their existing voting infrastructure before approving a transition plan — including a signed contract with a new vendor.

Three hard-right members of the Shasta board voted in support of the manual hand tally because they believed Dominion Voting Systems — which many counties across the state and rest of the U.S. use — had been hijacked by supporters of Joe Biden in 2020, thereby stealing the win from Donald Trump. These claims remain baseless three years later.

Pellerin’s bill passed the Assembly on Sept. 7, and the Senate concurred Sept. 8.

Assembly Bill 1078: Diversity in school curriculum

One of the most explosive topics in California and American politics at large is parental involvement in schools — particularly where students’ gender identity and school curriculum is concerned. Parents’ rights activists have rallied against Assemblyman Corey Jackson’s AB 1078, which will bar school boards from banning books, instructional materials or curricula that are deemed inclusive and diverse.

The debate came to a head earlier this summer when Temecula Valley Unified School District in Southern California voted to reject a social studies curriculum that featured gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Temecula’s school board president called Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the state, a “pedophile,” but backed down after Gov. Newsom threatened to sue the district for $1.5 million.

Those in opposition — mostly Republicans, although Democratic state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil also opposed — say that such a bill gives the state too much control over local governing bodies. They also believe that children are being exposed to inappropriate topics at too young an age.

But the bill’s author isn’t buying the parent’s rights angle.

“We know that this is really a political strategy,” Jackson said September 8, when California lawmakers passed it.

“And we’re not going to fall for it. And we have to protect our most vulnerable children. So I think overall, we’re on the right side of history.”

A public records overhaul

While this Consumer Watchdog ballot initiative is not part of the legislative session, it will likely show up in some form on the California ballot in 2024.

The taxpayer and consumer advocacy group’s proposal, called the Government Transparency Act, would drastically overhaul the state’s open records law. It would strengthen California’s Public Records Act and the Legislative Open Records Act in part by requiring legislators to publicly report meetings with lobbyists and fundraisers, as well as make public any allegations of misconduct or sexual harassment.

Consumer Watchdog filed the initiative with the Attorney General’s office in early August. An early poll showed 71% of voters support the initiative.