By admin 
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a raft of legislation on Saturday shoring up state election security protocols after he accused President Donald Trump and Republicans of trying to influence the November midterms.
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One bill he signed into law, Senate Bill 884, makes it illegal to arrest anyone within 200 feet of a polling place on Election Day, with exceptions for people who disrupt elections or commit other crimes against people and property.
Another bill Newsom signed, Assembly Bill 282, forbids authorities from seizing ballots before an election is certified, after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco took control of 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s special election after a so-called election integrity group claimed it had found voter fraud.
Bianco also ran for governor as a Republican and came in fifth in the June 2 primary.
Trump and election skeptics have claimed California elections are rife with fraud, and have tried to block state voters from casting ballots by mail, which Trump himself has done twice.
In a statement, Newsom called Trump a dictator and said California would stop him “at every opportunity” from trying to disenfranchise voters.
He signed the bills at the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Center in Los Angeles, where last year immigration officials appeared outside the rally he hosted to kick off his successful Proposition 50 redistricting campaign.
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“We have no bigger task than fighting to protect the right to vote from interference and meddling – the future of democracy is on the line,” Newsom said. “These bills today build upon the wall California has built to safeguard our electoral process.”
Other bills he signed aim to curb “deepfake” artificial intelligence-generated ads of politicians that are designed to manipulate voters and makes it a felony for authorities to directing their employees to interfere with the return or delivery of a vote-by-mail ballot.
Newsom previously signed an anti-deepfake bill in 2024 that a judge later struck down because it was too broad and infringed upon free speech.
Another bill he signed Saturday, Assembly Bill 1130, penalizes influencers who don’t disclose if they are paid to post content online supporting or opposing a campaign or candidate.
The Sacramento Bee previously reported that Tom Steyer paid influencers to boost his failed governor campaign online. The Fair Political Practices Commissioner cleared him of wrongdoing last week.
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