Voting Rights

In December 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Shirley N. Weber as California’s 31st Secretary of State (SOS), the state’s chief election official. 

The first African American to serve in the role – and the fifth Black person to become a constitutional officer in California – Weber took office on Jan. 29, 2021.

Weber has been a central and influential figure in California politics for years. She was an Assemblymember representing the 79th District in San Diego County and chaired the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC). In the Legislature, she introduced groundbreaking bills, including one of the strictest laws governing police use of deadly force in the country. It will protect Californians on “both sides of the badge,” she said, celebrating that legislation, which was supported by the California Police Chiefs Association.

Weber also introduced AB 3121, a bill that set up a committee called the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans. The group is charged with examining California’s involvement in slavery – and how California should compensate the descendants of enslaved Black Americans.

 As SOS, Weber is responsible for conducting elections in all 58 counties, managing the operations of the State Archives, and keeping a registry of businesses and nonprofits statewide.

“We passed legislation that gives everybody a vote by mail ballot, and we’ve seen that it works” says Weber, sharing details about a major electoral policy change she has implemented as SOS. “We have to make sure that every eligible Californian not only gets the right to vote, but that they are registered to vote and that they show up.”

On Jan. 24, California Black Media interviewed Weber at her Sacramento office. 

As an Assemblymember, you introduced groundbreaking legislation. What has the transition been like, moving from actively creating policy to settling into the administrative role of Secretary of State? 

It’s been interesting, to go from being a legislator where you share the responsibility of representing all Californians with 80 others in the Assembly and another 40 in the Senate. 

There, I wasn't responsible for all registered voters and the protection of those who work at the polls and those who work to register voters. 

Over here, you have an administrative role, and we support legislation like the Voting Rights Act. 

It’s been somewhat difficult to let go of my District. Fortunately, my daughter is the Assemblymember there now. 

The U.S. Senate did not pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Why is that significant and why are voting rights so important in America right now?

When Gov. Newsom asked me to be Secretary of State, the first thing that popped in my mind was voting rights. This wasn’t a position that I had lobbied for. We had made some tremendous changes in the Assembly and passed some groundbreaking legislation. 

Speaking to a reporter last December 22nd, I said this is a critical time because our nation is in peril. And he goes, “what do you mean?” I said, “our democracy is in crisis.” He didn't understand. When January 6 hit (the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol), people understood. 

I recognize this is a difficult and unique time for people in the nation, extremely difficult for African Americans, because most of us who have parents or we ourselves have lived through this struggle for voting rights.  My family understood the power of voting. My parents came out of Arkansas where they never got a chance to vote. My dad was an adult with six kids before he actually got a chance to register to vote in California.

What can ordinary Californians who care about expanding and protecting voting rights do?  We need to pay attention.

 We must fight laws that make it difficult for people to vote. Even though we don’t have that legislation coming out of our Legislature, we have people putting initiatives on the ballot.  California has expanded voting rights so much that people want to limit it. There’s only one group that can’t vote in this state: those who are physically in prison. Everyone else who meets the eligibility requirements in California can vote. And that frightens some people.

Do you see that movement to counteract the expansion of voting rights here in California or from other states?

 It is coming from within and without. We have to be careful of the deceptive methods used. Take the campaign against bail reform. It had been signed into law. And a group of bail bondsmen took a whole bunch of money, manipulated African Americans and put their faces on television. It confused voters and wiped out this whole effort we had been working on for five or six years. 

Do you think other Secretaries of State across the country will emulate California’s efforts to expand voting rights?  We are seeing that, especially in states with Democratic leadership. But in other places, we see also them fighting the Voting Rights Act.

Secretaries of State are a unique breed. Many are appointed by governors. Across the nation, people on the far Right are organizing to get candidates to run for Secretary of State, where before it was seen more as an administrative job with a few other responsibilities. Now, it is seen as a highly political job, especially given the legislation that's coming out in some places that would empower Legislatures to overturn votes.

You've been in this job for a year. Do you feel like you've accomplished your goals? 

I didn’t take this position because I needed to be a constitutional officer, or one day become Governor. The question for me was: What does the Secretary of State have to offer in these critical times? And obviously it is the defense of our democracy. I was coming in with the idea that we are going to expand our voting base. We have done that. 

We've also expanded the California Voter Choice Act counties Half of our counties are Voter Choice Act Counties, which gives us additional resources to go into those counties. They are now outvoting the rest of the counties.  Statewide, 88 % of eligible Californians are registered right now to vote. My goal is to get it to 100 %. 

Is California implementing additional safeguards to make sure irregularities are minimal?

 Yes, we are. We have a system that verifies votes. We test every machine in California before every election. We make it possible for people to observe the process. They can't come and start counting themselves. But they can observe. We do all this with transparency. 

How does it feel to look at that long wall of portraits of past Secretaries of State, and know that your legacy will be enshrined in California history?

 I'm very grateful. When I was sworn in, somebody says you're the first African American after some 170 years. How does that feel? I said, well – what took so long?

 By Edward Henderson | California Black Media

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau held a press conference to announce its first local level findings from the 2020 data collection cycle.

The new numbers -- which drill down to provide demographic information at the county, city and block levels -- reveal that California is more multiracial, more urban and facing population shifts that will likely lead to redrawing the boundaries of the state’s congressional and legislative districts.

Based on estimates the Census Bureau released in April, California is already losing a seat in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in the state’s 171-year history, bringing the state’s congressional delegation down to 52 members. That loss of one seat will also equate to a decline in the amount of federal funding California receives every year. Since August of 2020, the 14 members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission have been working on the once-in-a-decade project of redrawing the lines of the congressional, state Senate and Assembly and State Board of Equalization districts. There are five Democrats, five Republicans and four people who are not members of either party serving on the commission.

“The redistricting data provides population counts as well as well as demographic characteristics of ethnicity, race and voting age at all levels of geography,” said James Whitehorne, chief, Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office, U.S. Census Bureau. “While the primary purpose of these data is for states to redraw their districts, these statistics will also tell us how many people live in each city, each county and each block.”

Those numbers also determine how – and how much -- state and federal funding will be allocated to counties and cities in the state.

Based on the numbers, most of the changes coming to the state’s legislative districts are expected to happen where there has been population increases, slow growth or a loss of residents – areas in the rural northernmost regions of the state and in Southern California counties around or below Los Angeles. Growth across the Los Angeles area, for example, over the last 10 year has been slow, but some cities like Irvine in Orange County are now among the fastest-growing in the country.

Over the last 10 years, the complexion of California has changed significantly. Driven mostly by population growth among Hispanics, the state joined Hawaii, the District of Columbia and New Mexico as places in the United States where Whites are no longer the majority. The state’s Hispanic population grew from 37.6% in 2010 to 39.4 % in 2020 while the White population dropped from 40.1% to 34.7%.

The state’s Black population has also seen a decrease of 2.7% from a little over 6 % to 5.7%. The current total Black population is now 2,237,044.

California is also the second most diverse state after Hawaii, according to the Census Bureau.

“As the country has grown, we have continued to evolve in how we measure the race and ethnicity of the people who live here,” said Nicholas Jones, director and senior advisor of Race and Ethnic Research and Outreach, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau implemented a significant change to the 2020 census data collection. It used two separate questions to gather an additional layer of ethnic information besides the usual inquiries on race and Hispanic origin. For example, if a participant identified as Black or African American, there was also an option to specify nationalities like Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian Somali, etc.

“The improvements we made to the 2020 census yield a more accurate portrait of how people self-identify in response to two separate questions on Hispanic origin and race. Our analysis of the 2020 census results show that the US population is much more multiracial and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past.”

Across the United States, the results showed that the White population remained the largest in the country at 204.3 million with an additional 31.1 million identifying as mixed in combination with White. The multiracial population comprised the second highest population for the first time at 49.9 million alone or combined, surpassing the Black or African American population at 46.9 million.

The U.S. population is now 57.8% White, 18.7% Hispanic, 12.4% Black and 6% Asian.

There were several other notable findings shared by the bureau during the presentation. The US Population is currently 331.4 million people, an increase of 22.7 million over the past 10 years. The 7.4% increase is the second lowest growth rate in history.

Overall, national population growth was centered around urban areas over the last 10 years. California is home to 3 of the top 10 largest cities in the country. San Jose stands at number 10 with a population of 1.01 million (a 7.1% increase), San Diego is at number 8 with 1.4 million people (a 6.1 % increase), and number 2 on the list is Los Angeles with 3.8 million residents (a 2.8 % increase).

For the first time ever, all cities in the top 10 (with the highest populations) have over 1 million people.

According to the Census Bureau this first release of local redistricting data is in a legacy format that will be easier for experience data analysts to navigate.

In September, we will release the exact same data in a far more user-friendly format that people are familiar with and will allow for easier searching,” said Jones.

Visit census.gov for more detailed information, charts, and analysis.