Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning manual counting of ballots. This year, he signed a bill banning voter ID requirements. Already 16 and 17 year olds, and noncitizens with enrolled students, are able to vote in some school board elections in California.

Republicans say these bans on voter ID and hand counting, even if approved by voters at the local level, undermines voters’ trust in and destabilizes the democratic process. 

“Trust in our elections is pivotal to the stability of our democracy. Like many of his policies, the Governor does not reflect the will of the people,” said Assemblymember Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, who also serves as Vice Chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, to The Center Square. “Local officials need to be supported for adding measures to safeguard elections.” 

The 2023 ban on the manual counting of ballots was in response to Shasta County terminating its electronic voting system contract, entering a contract for a new voting system — to satisfy federal and state voting laws regarding their availability for disabled voters — but still opting to manually count all votes by hand. 

“Shasta County’s precipitous moves places their elections at risk and diminishes the public’s trust in elections. Now there is the threat that these costly and destabilizing actions will be repeated in other California counties,” wrote the League of Women Voters of California in the legislature’s record of support for the bill. “Without a computerized voting system, a timely and accurate count of ballots, in anything other than a very small election, may be impossible.” 

The United States did not start using computerized counting machines until the 1960s, before which lever machines were used following their invention in the late 19th century. In 2004, California decertified its touchscreen electronic voting machines due to security issues.

In 2013, New York City returned to the lever machines following issues with their electronic machines during the 2012 election, suggesting these systems could comply with modern election standards while addressing perceptions about computerized voting. 

The new ban on voter identification was passed in response to the City of Huntington Beach requiring voter identification for municipal elections starting in 2026.

“An overwhelming body of evidence proves that voter ID laws only subvert voter turnout and create barriers to law abiding voters,” wrote bill author State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine. “To register to vote in California, voters are already required to provide their driver’s license number, California identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number.”

State Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, introduced a failed amendment to the bill, SB 1174, that would have explicitly banned undocumented immigrants from voting. Undocumented immigrants are able to secure California identification numbers, but there is no wide-scale evidence of undocumented immigrants using this system to vote in the state. 

In nearby Santa Ana, however, undocumented immigrants could soon be allowed to vote in municipal elections if a proposition on the ballot for the current November 5 election passes. 

“Immigrant voting cannot wait, especially in a place as diverse and immigrant-dense as Santa Ana. The enfranchisement of any new group of voters has always been difficult, whether for women and people of color, or more recently, youth (in certain municipalities), and in the state of California, parolees with felony convictions,” wrote Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco nonprofit that supports affirmative action in employment and college admissions and opposes standardized testing, in support of the measure. 

San Francisco recently appointed Kelly Wong, who is not an American citizen and works at Chinese for Affirmative Action, to its seven-member elections commission that oversees and creates elections policy. 

 While the New York Supreme Court struck down a New York City authorization of those legally in the country to vote in the city’s municipal election, citing a violation to the state constitution, California’s Supreme Court upheld San Francisco’s expansion of the franchise in school board elections to non-citizens with children enrolled in the school district. 

“The California Court of Appeals ruled San Francisco had the power to expand voting rights in local elections and that rule is binding on trial courts, including the Orange County Superior Court,” said Julia Gomez, an American Civil Liberty Union attorney at a city council meeting on the matter. “The court also held that charter cities have authority to expand voting in local elections under the constitution’s home rule provisions including the provision that gives cities like Santa Ana authority over local elections and the manner in which municipal officers are elected.”

Though San Francisco allows non-residents to vote, including undocumented immigrants, in school board elections by filling out a special form, the city warns individuals that voting information can be accessed by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. While the United States Supreme Court has thus far declined to take up petitions against state and local “sanctuary” laws that bar cooperation with ICE, this is subject to change and could result in future action.