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U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla will appear on California’s June primary ballot twice. Here’s why

Excerpts:

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla in January 2021 to fill Vice President Kamala Harris’ vacant senate seat after she was sworn in to her new White House position.

Californians elected Harris to the senate in 2016, a six-year term that runs through January 2023. But a law signed by Newsom last year prevents Padilla from finishing Harris’ term as an appointed senator.

Instead, he must compete with a slew of other candidates for both the partial term and for a new six-year stint.

Support Voters by Giving to CVF for Big Day of Giving!

Hi Folks,

This week we are celebrating Big Day of Giving along with hundreds of other nonprofits in the Sacramento region! I hope you will join in by donating to the California Voter Foundation and supporting our work improving the voting process to better serve voters through Big Day of Giving, via PayPal or by check.

Here’s a quick look at CVF’s current programs:

Supporting and Defending Election Officials and Election Administration

Election officials in California and across the country are facing an increasingly hostile and threatening public. The number of threats and amount of harassment election officials and their staff are enduring is unprecedented. CVF exposed this crisis in its landmark 2021 report, Documenting and Addressing Harassment of Election Officials. In response, CVF has formed a nationwide network of leaders across a number of sectors to defend and build a community of support for election officials and election administration.

Hearing Tuesday on Bill to Protect Election Workers

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Since 2020, a growing number of election workers have been threatened, harassed, and even spat on - so tomorrow the State Senate Judiciary Committee will hear a bill that would allow them to hide their address from public view.

Senate Bill 1131 would allow election workers to join the Safe at Home program, which was created 20 years ago to make it harder for perpetrators of domestic violence to track down their victims. Kim Alexander is president and co-founder of the California Voter Foundation, a co-sponsor of the bill

Bill to Protect Election Workers Advances in California Legislature

California election workers will have the ability to keep their personal information private under a bill currently moving through the California Legislature. Senate Bill 1131, authored by State Senator Josh Newman (D- Fullerton) and co-sponsored by the California Voter Foundation and the Brennan Center for Justice, will allow election officials and their staff to enroll in state address confidentiality programs to shield their personal data from public exposure.

California lawmakers consider bill to protect poll workers' privacy

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With a political landscape that remains polarized and after several examples of harassment, California lawmakers are now considering a bill to protect election poll workers.

"People who are frustrated with the conduct of election or the outcome of elections, are starting to take it out on the people administering elections," said the author of the bill, State Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton).

California lawmakers advance bill allowing election workers to hide addresses

Excerpts:

California's legislature advanced a bill on Monday that would protect election workers in the state by keeping their home addresses and other private information hidden from the public.

The California Senate Elections Committee unanimously advanced the bill, which seeks to protect election and poll workers via a system similar to the state's Safe at Home program protecting victims of domestic violence and abuse.

California considers letting election workers hide addresses

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Elections in the U.S. have become so polarizing that California is considering treating poll workers with the same caution as domestic violence victims by letting them keep their addresses hidden from public records.

In Focus This Week - Exit Interview, Orange County’s Neal Kelley retires

Excerpts:

Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley is a bit of a Renaissance man.

Before joining the county as chief deputy registrar, Kelley worked in a variety of fields including retail, law enforcement and he’d served as an adjunct professor with Riverside Community College’s Business Administration Department.

States Want to Boost Protections for Threatened Local Election Officials

From her second-floor office window in Medford, Oregon, elections administrator Chris Walker vividly remembers reading the unsettling words painted in big white letters on the parking lot below in late November 2020: “Vote don’t work. Next time bullets.”

Her heart sank, she recalls, wondering whether or when the threat would materialize. Former President Donald Trump had won her southern Oregon community, and despite his lie that the election was stolen, she never expected this anger.

Oregon, California seek to protect election workers from threats

Lawmakers in Oregon and California are calling for tougher legislation to protect election workers in response to a continuing wave of threats and harassment inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged against him.

In Oregon, legislators are considering a measure that would make it a felony to harass or threaten election workers while they are performing their official duties, state officials said. The measure would also exempt the personal information of election workers, such as home addresses, from certain public records.

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