An unmanned, unsecured ballot drop box on Skid Row in Los Angeles, CA (Photo screenshot: X)
Newsom Signs SB 73 to Block Ballot Seizures and Election Oversight
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli responded directly: ‘This bill has no effect on federal criminal investigations’
By Megan Barth, May 28, 2026 11:59 am
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 73 into law on Wednesday, just days before the June 2 statewide primary. The legislation, authored by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) with co-author Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange County) and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz), makes it a felony for law enforcement, including federal agents, to seize ballots, access voter rolls, or interfere with certified voting equipment without a court order or specific authorization tied to a violation of state election law.
The bill passed the Legislature along party lines and took effect immediately upon signing as an urgency measure. It was fast-tracked in direct response to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s earlier seizure of more than 600,000 ballots from the Prop 50 special election as part of a fraud investigation. The investigation was halted by the California Supreme Court, but Bianco’s scrutiny became the catalyst for Democrats to push for new “protections.”
Newsom hailed the bill as a necessary safeguard “as Trump and MAGA assault democracy,” claiming it protects voters, election workers, and ballot security from “interference and intimidation.” In his announcement, he declared: “California will not allow our elections to be commandeered by political intimidation, abuse of power, or chaotic interference from extremists chasing conspiracy theories...We’re not sitting idly by — we’re safeguarding California’s elections.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli responded directly: “Not to worry. This bill has no effect on federal criminal investigations. We have and will continue to investigate election fraud.”
Not to worry. This bill has no effect on federal criminal investigations. We have and will continue to investigate election fraud. https://t.co/JndwVLcMAJ
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) May 28, 2026
With his eyes on the oval office, Newsom has repeatedly framed federal and local efforts to examine California’s elections as politically motivated attacks by “Trump and MAGA” forces. His office’s statement on SB 73 ties the bill to “growing threats of election interference and intimidation, including efforts by allies of President Donald Trump to undermine confidence in elections.”
Newsom’s rhetoric distracts from California’s documented vulnerabilities and resistance to transparency as historically and chronically documented by this outlet.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Cervantes, stated it is a “direct response to efforts by officials in the Trump Administration and local elected leaders to undermine our democracy piece by piece.”
Essayli’s intervention highlights that federal criminal authority operates under the Supremacy Clause (not to mention that elections are indeed a matter of national security). State law cannot fully impede legitimate federal probes into issues like voter fraud, double voting, or non-citizen voting. Cervantes and Sacramento Democrats may need to be refreshed that protecting the integrity of American elections transcends state boundaries and falls squarely within federal jurisdiction.
Californians deserve transparent, auditable elections, not barriers disguised as protections.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
September 17, 2024 -
-
-
November 18, 2019 - October 4, 2023
“California will not allow our elections to be commandeered by political intimidation, abuse of power, or chaotic interference from extremists chasing conspiracy theories…We’re not sitting idly by — we’re safeguarding California’s elections.”
Who commandeered my November 2020 vote recording it, based on the SOS website, Saturday, October 31, 2020, when I deposited my ballot in a “drop box”
Monday, November 2, 2020. LESSON: Avoid drop boxes. If voting at a polling place (what used to be a precinct) there would be validation.
Is Gavin planning to arrest federal agents with CHP officers and local law enforcement? Sounds like the plot of a “Reno 911” episode.
[Newsom hailed the bill as a necessary safeguard “as Trump and MAGA assault democracy,” claiming it protects voters, election workers, and ballot security from “interference and intimidation.”]
We have been assaulted by Newsom for the last 8 years!
He just wants to protect THE CHEAT.
I am so looking forward to the day Newsom leaves office! A complete LOSER. Mommy never taught him, cheaters never prosper! It will all catch up to him.
Why is it that whatever Gavin wants to do, no matter how Criminal, he gets away with it? Furthermore, being a former WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM MEMBER, and Allie of China and the UN with its SMART CITIES and AGENDA 2030 which is why the Palisades and Malibu were DELIBERATELY BURNT DOWN for SMARTLA2028 and all his NET ZERO-CARBON NEUTRAL crapola, he should have already declared a very DANGEROUS TRAITOR and should have been removed from office and put behind Prison Bars for a very long time.
Newsom and the California Democrats are in a full coverup mode when it comes to election cheating, fraud and waste. The bill to hide fraud and waste tied to the high speed rail project is now law, and information taken down from the HSR website. The Assembly this week just pass the Nick Shirley act to fine and jail investigative journalists uncovering fraud. Now we have the voter fraud coverup act.
Welcome to Commiefornia.,
Newsom and the criminal Democrat thug mafia know they can’t win elections without cheating. Thankfully U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli pointed out that this unlawful legislation has NO effect on federal criminal investigations.
Who are the Democrats that authored SB 73 that Newsom signed into law?
It’s no surprise that Democrat Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin co-authored this legislation. She’s been a parasite on taxpayers for years having previously served as Santa Cruz County Clerk from 1993 until her resignation in 2020 before being installed into the 28th Assembly District–-probably with Democrat voter fraud and rigged voting machines? She previously authored Assembly Bill 969 that was signed into law by Newsom which specifically prohibits an elections official from performing a manual vote count. Gail Pellerin is also a member California Democrat Legislative Jewish Caucus who has done absolutely NOTHING about the pervasive antisemitism and attacks against Jewish students and faculty at California’s publicly funded educational institutions. There’s a video of Gail Pellerin presiding over a meeting to discuss Assembly Bill 969 which revealed her to be extremely rude and obnoxious.
Democrat Senator Tom Umberg who was installed to represent Northern Orange County and South Whittier in Senate District 34 is also a member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus who has done absolutely NOTHING about the pervasive antisemitism and attacks against Jewish students and faculty at California’s publicly funded educational institutions. In 2019, Umberg authored SB 450, which created a California Environmental Quality Act exemption to allow cities and counties to purchase dilapidated hotels and motels and convert them into transitional housing. The following year, Newsom implemented Project Homekey, which utilized Umberg’s bill to provide funding to cities and counties to purchase hotels and motels for conversion to address the state’s homelessness crisis. Billions of taxpayer dollars have disappeared and are unaccounted under that program with few homeless benefiting from it. He’s an attorney who has been in Democrat politics his entire career and would probably starve if taxpayers weren’t supporting him? Any white man like Senator Tom Umberg who is still in the Democrat party at this point has to be corrupt to the core?
Democrat Senator Sabrina Cervantes has been involved in several controversies. Cervantes is a radical leftist and an openly LGBTQ+ Latina who gave birth to triplets with her wife in 2019. She was somehow installed to represent the generally conservative California Senate District 31 in the Inland Empire that includes northwestern Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In May 2025, Cervantes was involved in a car crash in Sacramento and she was initially cited for being under the influence of drugs because she as acting erratically and abusive towards police officers. She suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital. She claimed that she was “accosted” by Sacramento police officers which were later shown to be false after reviewing body camera footage and in talking with hospital staff. It was not clear exactly why Cervantes was driving in the first place because the California Legislature provides drivers and vehicles to take lawmakers from place to place in Sacramento, especially during the workdays. It sounded like she was combative and felt she was above the law like most Democrat lawmakers?