LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday, September 19, 2026, signed a package of election-protection bills at the Democracy Center, creating new felonies for interfering with ballots and election systems and extending state rules on deepfakes, paid online political posts, and activity near polling places, according to the Governor’s Office.

Newsom framed the package as a shield against what he called Donald Trump’s push for “dictatorial control” over the vote ahead of November. “Donald Trump won’t stop until he can exert dictatorial control over your free vote and disenfranchise millions of people this November. California will stop him at every opportunity,” Newsom said in the release. Whether that framing holds is politics; what the bills do on paper is expand California’s criminal and regulatory reach around elections — power concentrated in Sacramento as much as any federal theory of meddling.

Key felony and penalty bills

Per the Governor’s Office bill list:

  • AB 282 (Pellerin) makes it a felony to seize — or cause or assist in seizing — ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before election results are certified, and a felony for anyone with authority to direct a subordinate to do so.
  • SB 259 (Wahab) makes it a felony for a person with authority to direct interference with the delivery or return of a vote-by-mail ballot, and a misdemeanor for someone in charge of a VBM ballot to interfere with its delivery to a voter.
  • AB 1130 (Berman) allows administrative, civil, or criminal penalties against people paid by a campaign committee to post online political content if they fail to disclose they are paid.
  • AB 686 (Berman) extends the sunset on California’s deepfake / “materially deceptive” audio-visual media disclosure rules from January 1, 2027, to January 1, 2031.
  • AB 1664 (Jackson) requires local agencies, political subdivisions, or elections officials to notify the Secretary of State and Attorney General within one calendar day of becoming aware of warrants, subpoenas, or active law-enforcement investigations involving search, seizure, or retention of election records or certified voting technology.
  • SB 884 (Umberg) extends vote-by-mail drop-off hours and modifies prohibited activities near polling places for elections held or proclaimed in 2026–2029.

The package also includes SB 1164 (California Voting Rights Act expansion), SB 1360 (language-access expansions), SB 1418 (crime for taking election materials/voting tech from official custody), SB 1420 (uniform VBM-at-poll procedures), AB 502 and AB 686-adjacent deceptive-content rules, AB 2103 (Engaged California Program), AB 2281 (election cybersecurity resource assessment), and related measures listed in the same release.

Weber, Bonta, and the USPS mail-voting claim

Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber said California was “erecting a shield against multiple attacks against our elections,” and that voters “will not be silenced or intimidated,” per the release. Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Trump administration is waging an “all-out assault on our elections and voting rights,” and pointed to what he described as a U.S. Supreme Court victory the same week blocking the administration from implementing sweeping changes to mail voting for the November midterms — language attributed to Bonta and the Governor’s Office, not independently adjudicated here.

The Governor’s Office also said the signing follows Trump threats to send federal officers to polling places and efforts to access private voter data and election records. Separately the same day, Newsom signed SB 1354 on state-to-state military deployments, the release said.

New felonies for ballot and tech seizures, longer-lived deepfake speech rules, paid-poster disclosure penalties, and expanded poll-zone bans are all state power plays. Skepticism of concentrated authority does not require picking a team — it applies whether the pressure comes from Washington or Sacramento.

Sources