This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
It’s that time.
This week, county election officials are mailing ballots to registered voters across California in preparation for the special election next month. This is, of course, just one part of getting California ready for an election.
Election officials take great care to ensure that, at every step, voters are safe and ballots are secure. Californians can count on our elections. That hasn’t changed.
What has changed is the volume of false claims about elections coming out of the federal government. It’s noise that Californians need to ignore as we near Nov. 4.
Amid today’s polarized environment and reports of political violence, it’s important for voters to know that federal law protects all voters against voter intimidation. Moreover, voters can be confident in the strong state laws here in California that protect against intimidation, whether at a drop box or in a polling place.
One California law — the Protecting Elections from Armed Coercion and Extremism Act — bans intimidation and threats against voters and election officials. It also gives voters and election workers the ability to sue those who engage in such tactics. And the PEACE Act, which passed last year with support from both sides of the aisle, tells juries weighing those lawsuits to presume that carrying guns where elections are being conducted is intimidation.
Because of these strong laws and the work of local and...
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