Governor Newsom signs bills curbing billionaire influence on elections and protecting elections from interference

What the bills do

• Leveling the playing field: Senate Bill 42 (Umberg) — This bill will put on the November 2026 ballot a measure to repeal the ban on public financing of elections in California, extending to all cities and counties the ability to create programs for publicly financed elections, helping level the playing field for candidates and reducing the ability of millionaires and billionaires to essentially buy elections.
• Banning election sweepstakes: Senate Bill 398 (Umberg) — This bill criminalizes offering payments and other valuable items to incentivize voting or voter registration. The bill defines “other valuable consideration” to include a chance to win a lottery or prize-drawing contest. The crime would be punishable by imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both fine and imprisonment. Currently, it is not a crime to pay someone to register to vote.

“California has sent a clear message: our democracy belongs to the people,” said Senator Umberg (D – Santa Ana). “With SB 398 and SB 42, we are protecting voters from manipulative schemes and empowering communities to decide how campaigns are financed in our state. These laws reaffirm California’s commitment to fair, transparent, and accessible elections.”

Current law in California already allows charter cities to do this which is why Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco have publicly financed programs in place. According to the Brennan Center, “Fourteen states and 26 municipalities now offer public financing systems to empower voters and help candidates run campaigns that are more focused on the people they are running to represent.”

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