Cervantes’ Landmark California Voting Rights Act Approved by State Senate, Affirming Defense of Democracy

(SACRAMENTO) –The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 (CVRA 2026), comprised of Senate Bill 1164 and 1360 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), both cleared the State Senate Floor this week. With recent decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States, fighting voter suppression and vote dilution in California law has become more necessary than ever.

“The Senate approving the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 is a crucial step toward protecting democracy in California, and I thank my colleagues for their support. CVRA 2026 addresses new and existing barriers to participation, expands language access, and reinforces safeguards against voter discrimination. Elections should be inclusive, accessible, and reliable for all who participate, and the CVRA 2026 demonstrates California’s leadership in upholding these values,” said Senator Cervantes.

The sponsor of CVRA 2026, the California Democracy Partnership, is a growing group of civil justice, voting rights, and labor organizations. Advocates celebrated Tuesday’s advancement of the CVRA 2026 out of the Senate but noted there is much more work to do before the bills reach the Governor’s Desk.

“Our best defense against attempts to silence our voices at the federal level is to strengthen and update our state level voter protections. We already have some of the strongest voting rights laws in the country, but when laws are being subverted at every chance, our current safeguards may not be enough. We thank the Senators who stood strong behind our democracy today by supporting the CVRA of 2026 and look forward to working with Assemblymembers to ensure our democracy is strengthened in the face of federal attacks. We are also committed to continuing to work with our partners in the legislature to ensure ballot access is increased, not diminished, through increased language access and investments in trusted messengers,” said Deanna Kitamura, Managing Attorney for Voting Rights at the Asian Law Caucus.

Recent polling found that two-thirds of California voters believe democracy is under attack and that they overwhelmingly support state lawmakers in strengthening voter protections.

CVRA 2026 will:

• Prohibit voter suppression: Confront threats to voter participation and access to voting opportunities that occur through discriminatory barriers to the ballot.
• Prohibit vote dilution: Protect against district maps or election systems that weaken or silence the voting power of communities of color.
• Stop voting discrimination before it occurs:  Require jurisdictions with a recent history of discrimination to obtain approval before making certain changes to voting practices.
• Ensure voters can directly protect their rights:  As voters’ ability to use the federal VRA comes under attack, ensure Californians can go to state court to enforce voting rights.
• Require courts to interpret laws in favor of voters: Direct courts to interpret laws and exercise discretion in favor of broad access and equal participation in the democratic process.
• Guarantee the federal VRA’s language assistance requirements under state law: Codify Section 203 of the VRA’s requirement to provide in-language votable ballots and all other election materials to groups that meet a certain threshold in a county.
• Expand upon current Section 203 language coverage: Lower Section 203’s numerical threshold for assistance from 10K to 5K of adult citizens in a county and expand upon Section 203’s language minority categories to include all language groups.
• Streamline and clarify the steps for language groups to receive assistance in voting: Gives groups not adequately captured in the Census the opportunity to show, through other sources, that they should qualify for language assistance. 

"Right now, we are in the midst of a critical battle to protect the franchise of Black voters and other voters of color, who are facing the greatest assault on their voting rights since the era of state-enforced racial discrimination known as Jim Crow," said Adam Lioz, Senior Policy Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. "The State Senate's passage of the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 helps put California back on the front lines, building on the state's leadership in enacting the first-ever State Voting Rights Act in 2002."

Read more about Senate Bills 1164 and 1360. Both bills now move to the State Assembly. 

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