August 25, 2026 · Public Safety · 1,134 words · 4 speakers · 27 segments
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you . Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety. Today we will be hearing Senate Bill 259, authored by Senator Wahab. This is an official call out to Senator Wahab and her staff to please come to room 127. We will need you here so we can dispense with your item and hand you off to the elections committee, also meeting in this room, hopefully at 9.30 a.m. I'll note that SB 259 has been referred to the committee pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. While we wait for the senator, we'll begin with some housekeeping items. As a reminder, there are some general rules of conduct that I'd like to go over before we start the hearing today. Please note that in order to facilitate the goal of conducting a legislative hearing, and as we carry forward with witness testimony and public comment, I want to ensure that everyone understands we have rules to ensure that we maintain order and run an efficient and fair hearing. I won't permit conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of today's legislative proceedings. Please be aware that violations of these rules may subject you to removal or other enforcement actions. Noticing that we do have a quorum, Mr. Secretary, would you please call the roll?
Schultz. Present. Alanis. Mark Gonzalez. Haney. Arbidian. Here. Lackey. Wen. Ramos. Here. Sharp-Colins. Here.
All right. Noticing the presence of Mr. Lackey as well. All right, colleagues. We're just waiting on the senator, so we'll stand by. And if the senator's office can please let us know her ETA, if she needs me to present the bill on her behalf, I'm happy to do that. I'd really like to keep us moving along on time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. All right, everyone. We have not received a response yet from the senator's office, so I will be presenting the bill on her behalf. I'm going to ask Dr. Sharp-Collins to preside over this hearing. Dr. Sharp-Collins, floor is yours. Thank you. Okay. All right. So we have a motion already? All right, we have a motion and a second. All right, good morning. We have Assemblymember Schultz presenting on behalf of Senator Wahab, presenting Senate Bill 259. Author, you may begin, well, presenting on behalf of the author, you may begin with the presentation. You have five minutes allotted to present the bill.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just for the record, SB 259 would make it a misdemeanor for any person having charge of a vote-by-mail ballot to interfere as defined with the ballot's delivery to a voter. It would also make it a felony for a person with authority to direct one or more persons subject to their supervision or authority to interfere with a ballot's return to the local elections official or delivery to a voter. With that, we do have a witness to testify in support thereof.
Good morning, Chair and members. Beth Malnowski with SEIU California in proud support of SB 259. SEU California is committed to safeguarding the right to vote, a right that is currently under active attack at the federal level. This growing threat highlights why California must act now to strengthen California law ahead of this year's elections. Building on prior election safeguarding bills, SB 259-Wahhab and AB 282-Pelerin, an election protection legislative package, ensures Californians have the greatest confidence in our election systems. As noted, the bill would establish a new felony misdemeanors relating to the willful interference of delivery or receipt of a VBM ballot, vote by mail ballot. Of note, the penalties under the bill do not apply to instances where an individual, volunteer, or local election official accidentally misplaces or impacts of ballots timely receipt or delivery. Closing, we stand on the legislature in creating new protections and safeguarding to guarantee a free and fair election. Respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who is in support of the bill? If so, please come forward, state your name, organization, and position. All right. Hearing and seeing none, is there anyone who is in opposition to the bill? Okay. All right. And one more time. Anyone else? Okay. There we go. All right. Hearing and seeing none, we will go ahead and move forward to the committee. But we already had a first that was done by Harbidi, and the second was done by Wynne, by Wynne. And we will go ahead and turn it over to the committee for any questions. All right, I'll turn it back over to Schultz to close.
On behalf of Senator Wahab, respectfully ask for an aye vote today.
All right, thank you. I'll turn it over if we can call the roll. For SB 259, Wahab, the motion is due pass to the Committee on Elections. Schultz.
Aye.
Schultz, aye. Alanis. Gonzalez. Haney. Aye. Haney aye Aye Harabedian Aye Harabedian aye Lackey No Lackey no Wen Aye Wen aye Ramos Aye Ramos aye Sharp-Collins. Sharp-Collins, aye. All right, colleagues, that bill is out.
Thank you to Dr. Sharp-Collins for chairing.
That concludes the business of the Assembly of Public Safety.
Can I make a request? Alanis is on his way over. I'm going to leave it open until 930. Okay, perfect.
Thank you, Mr. Lackey.
So that does conclude our business. The role will be left open for approximately 10 minutes until 9.30 a.m. for absent members. To add on, we stand adjourned.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right, Mr. Secretary, I see the vice chair has joined us. Please allow him to add on.
For SB 259, the motion is due passed to the Committee on Elections.
Melanie Nese. You know, there's still time to go to I if you'd like. Okay, fair enough.
Vice chair's added on.
For any other members of the committee, we'll keep this open until 9.30. We do have enough votes. The bill is out. So if you can't make it, we all understand.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for being in two places at once. Please allow him to add on, Mr. Secretary.
For SB 259, Wahab, the motion is do pass to the Elections Committee.
Gonzalez. Aye.
All right. For the record, the bill is out with seven votes and it's off to the Elections Committee. That concludes our business.
Thank you.