Elections

California’s push to expand language access in elections has run headlong into pandemic fears and record numbers of Californians voting early, from home.

After more than a decade living in the United States, Santiago Pazos thought he’d be able to vote this year for the first time. He moved to Los Angeles from Spain in 2009, got a green card and eventually started his own business. He became eligible to apply for citizenship earlier this year, and was […]

Betsy Guthrie used to lead campaign phone bank trainings in loud, crowded houses sprinkled with snacks and buzzing with energy. Not this year. Ms. Guthrie is alone in the guest bedroom of her home in Marin County, shouting into a computer while fiddling with screen share. “I don’t know how we would do this right […]

You’ve voted, or you plan to. We want to know how the process works for you.

A week before Election Day and anxiety over the postal service’s ability to ferry voters’ ballots to county election administrators on time has ratcheted up yet again. Here are the reasons the alarm bells are ringing anew: Back in May, the United States Postal Service’s top lawyer advised voters across the country to put their […]

In a stark scene of what the electoral process in California can look like in 2020, masked voters last Monday cast early ballots in an El Dorado County elections office powered by a generator after dry winds and fear of wildfires triggered an electricity shutoff. This year, thanks to back-up generators and the promise of […]

State law caps the amount donors can give to a legislator’s campaign — but these special interests can spend as much as they like mounting their own campaigns to praise or trash candidates. And the money interest groups are pouring into these  “independent expenditure committees” has reached dizzying heights. So far more than $31 million of […]

Gig companies embark on a last-minute spending blitz after a court rules that drivers should be paid as employees and labor groups question campaign tactics.

It was a succinct appraisal of the state of mind of county election officials grappling with the new normal of voting in the year of a pandemic, disinformation and threats of voter intimidation. Across California, officials have been training workers at polling places and vote centers in new protocols, acquiring equipment to protect voters and […]

Some county registrars lock up equipment and threaten dismissal to protect California’s early votes from being tallied before election day.  The state legislature changed election law this year so election officials could scan ballots as they come in, to deal with an expected crush of ballots well before election day. Officials wanted to be sure […]