Election reform bills banning payments for voter registration and potentially allowing public campaign financing signed into law Wednesday
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KEYT) – Governor Newsom signed a pair of election reform bills authored by the Chair of the state's Senate Judiciary Committee into law this week.
SB 398 criminalizes lotteries, cash or other prizes, and other incentives in exchange for voter registration.
The new law would make those efforts a crime punishable by a fine up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to three years, or both, for any person who knowingly or willfully pays or offers to pay money or other valuable consideration to another to induce them to vote or register to vote or if the payment is made contingent on if a person voted or registered to vote.
"California is the most diverse state in the world’s most diverse democracy. Right now, our founding ideals and values are being shredded before our eyes in Washington D.C., and California will not sit idle," said Governor Newsom. "These new laws further protect Californians' voices and civic participation in what makes our state and our country great."
"We want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment," stated Musk while announcing the sweepstakes at a Trump campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "We are going to be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election."
To be eligible to win the $1 million prize, signers of the petition had to be registered in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin stated the terms and conditions on Musk's political action committee website.
Federal law already makes it crime for anyone who, "pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting", but most states only have prohibitions on paying people to vote or not vote for a candidate directly.
In response, Philadelphia's District Attorney Larry Krasner brought a suit against Elon Musk and America PAC seeking to end the lottery.
"America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens – and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) – to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery," argued District Attorney Krasner in October of 2024.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta, who presided over the case, argued that because the winners were spokespeople who were not randomly selected, he ruled that the paid endorsements of parts of the U.S. Constitution would be allowed to continue through to election day.
The other election reform bill authored by State Senator Umberg and signed into law Wednesday was SB 42 which would allow voters to decide in the 2026 election to repeal the statewide ban on public campaign financing programs.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a public officer from spending and political candidates from accepting public money when seeking office.
Because the act was an initiative measure, the campaign and disclosure law can have its public finance sections amended by a statute approved by voters.
If SB 42 is passed by voters during next year's election cycle, it would restore the right of local and state authorities to establish public campaign finance programs.
"California has sent a clear message: our democracy belongs to the people," stated State Senator Umberg. "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."
