What Is the California Voting Rights Act of 2026?

California Environmental Voters
August 13, 2026

Updated September 21, 2026

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 is a pair of state laws (SB 1164 and SB 1360, both authored by Senator Sabrina Cervantes) that writes protections for the freedom to vote directly into California law. Together, they would prohibit voter suppression and protect voting power, require jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to get state approval before changing election practices, let Californians enforce their voting rights in state court, and guarantee election materials in more languages.

Both bills were signed into California law by Governor Newsom on September 19, 2026 as part of a package of laws to protect California elections from Trump interference.

Why is California passing a voting rights act now?

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 responds to the moment we’re in right now, where the Trump administration and conservative Supreme Court are working to roll back our voting rights. In the past year, the federal voting rights protections that Californians have relied on for 60 years were stripped away by the Supreme Court and the Trump administration is actively working to interfere in how California runs its elections, despite elections being a constitutional responsibility left to states to decide.

For decades, if a city or state drew voting maps that shut out underrepresented communities like Black, Latino, or Asian American communities, voters could challenge those maps in federal court under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thanks to this Civil Rights-era law, every racial group has a legal requirement to have equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

But on April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court made that nearly impossible. In a 6–3 decision, Louisiana v. Callais, the Court struck down a Louisiana map that created a second majority-Black district, ruling that it was “racial gerrymandering” and that any Section 2 lawsuit for better map representation has to prove discriminatory intent—something that is incredibly difficult to prove in court. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent that the ruling “eviscerates” the law, leaving Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act almost unusable.

At the same time, the Trump administration has gone after elections three other ways:

- Executive orders telling states how to run elections, including one that would have let the Postal Service deliver ballots only to voters on a federally approved list
- Demands that states hand over voter files containing driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, which the Brennan Center has tracked across dozens of states
- Lawsuits against California’s new congressional map, which was created through the passage of Proposition 50 in the 2025 California election.

California has beaten back all three of Trump’s attacks on our voting rights. Attorney General Rob Bonta won court orders blocking the mail voting order. Secretary of State Shirley Weber refused to turn over voter data, and a federal judge threw Trump’s lawsuit against her out in January 2026. And every challenge to Proposition 50 failed, including at the Supreme Court in February 2026 where the Court rejected the California Republican Party and Trump administration’s request for them to block Prop 50 maps.

But court wins can be undone by appeals and later rulings. State law is harder to take away, which is why we need the California Voting Rights Act of 2026.

What does SB 1164 do?

SB 1164 protects Californians from discriminatory voting practices, focusing specifically on electoral maps and vote dilution.

Vote dilution means your vote still gets counted, but it’s grouped so it counts for less—like splitting one neighborhood across four districts so it never has enough votes to elect anyone. Voters used to be protected from this before the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision made it more difficult to enforce protections against the practice. This bill fixes that to make sure every voter and community has a voice in elections.

According to Senator Cervantes’ office, SB 1164 will:

- Make it illegal to put up discriminatory barriers that keep Californians from casting a ballot.
- Ban district maps and election systems that water down your vote through vote dilution practices that weaken the voting power of historically disenfranchised communities.
- Stop voting discrimination before it happens. Places with a recent history of voting discrimination would have to run certain election changes past the California Attorney General first.
- Let you go to state court to defend your voting rights. With people no longer able to use the federal Voting Rights Act to sue against voting discrimination, this bill gives Californians a way to defend their voting rights in state courts.

What does SB 1360 do?

SB 1360 makes sure your ballot shows up in a language you can read so anyone can participate in an election.

California already requires counties to translate ballots and election materials when enough voters in an area need help with English. SB 1360 widens the qualifications for translation so that more people can get ballots in a language they can read, based on the number of voters rather than the percentage. That way, a large language community in a big county counts even when it’s a small slice of the population.

Where a language qualifies, counties would have to provide:

- Translated ballots, voter registration forms, and election instructions
- Enough bilingual poll workers to help any voter who asks

The federal Voting Rights Act has language protections, but they expire in 2032. If the federal government doesn’t renew these language protections or decides not to enforce them, the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 will now make sure they’re covered in state law. It also goes beyond the federal requirements, extending coverage to language groups that are currently left out by the federal law.

How is the 2001 California Voting Rights Act different from the California Voting Rights Act of 2026?

The 2001 California Voting Rights Act by then-Senator Richard Polanco expanded on voting rights from the federal Voting Rights Act by prohibiting the use of at-large elections, where everyone across the city votes on every council seat, if it would dilute votes from protected-class communities like racial minorities. This bill moved California’s elections in places like cities, school districts, and other jurisdictions from at-large to district elections, which protect more against vote dilution, and allowed people to sue for better electoral representation in California court.

This 2001 California Voting Rights law has made a massive difference in making sure underrepresented communities have a voice in elections. Since it passed, more than 600 cities, school districts, and other jurisdictions in California have replaced at-large elections with districts, and a 2021 study in Urban Affairs Review by Loren Collingwood and Sean Long found that minority representation on city councils rose 10% to 12% as a result, and by about 21% in cities with large Latino populations.

But while district-based elections are better than at-large elections in making sure voters’ voices are heard, they’re not immune to discriminatory practices that could contribute to vote dilution. The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 will improve on the 2001 California Voting Rights Act by making sure that district-based elections are held to high standards for voting rights protections and making sure everyone has a chance to make their vote count.

Arguments against the California Voting Rights Act of 2026

The main objection to the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 was cost, specifically the cost of potential lawsuits.

Right now, a city that drops at-large elections and switches to district elections can’t be sued again under the 2001 California Voting Rights Act. SB 1164 will end that protection and reopen these cities for lawsuits if voters want to go to state court over potentially discriminatory district maps. The League of California Cities opposed the bill, saying cities could face repeated lawsuits over their district maps.

However, this argument glosses over the built-in solutions that are already part of the bill. Cities with a history of discrimination would run election changes past the Attorney General first. By approving changes in advance and making sure they’re legally clear, cities can eliminate the risk of a later lawsuit.

What does the California Voting Rights Act have to do with the climate crisis?

Our democracy and our fight for climate progress are more connected than most people think. The freedom to vote is the foundation of everything else California fights for: public health, clean air and water, and an affordable future.

EnviroVoters is focused on democracy work because a healthy, fair democracy and climate justice go hand in hand. We’re in this movement to protect everyday people like you and me, and we can’t have a government that fights for climate justice if people aren’t able to vote for it.

The climate decisions that shape daily life aren’t only made in Washington D.C. by the federal government. A lot of the most important decisions that impact our environment, affordability, and health are made by city councils, county boards of supervisors, air districts, and water boards. These local lawmakers decide where warehouses get built, hand out permits to development projects, and decide whose drinking water gets cleaned up first.

Vote dilution can be especially damaging in smaller, more local races—and these are the very same races that make those important decisions for your daily life. And we know from decades of research that the communities with the least voting power are consistently the ones living closest to pollution and other climate impacts. When a neighborhood’s votes get split, the consequence could be another decade of asthma and unsafe tap water in the same zip codes.

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 protects communities by giving them the voting power to put people in office that will fight for their community, their safety, and their future.

What happens next, and how to help

Now that both bills have been signed into law by Governor Newsom, they’ll take effect on January 1, 2027.

A Berkeley IGS poll found that two-thirds of Californians believe American democracy is under attack. These new laws address that concern, and now we need to use the new voting protections we’ve been given to elect people into office that will put everyday people first.

Check that your own voter registration is current, and look up how your legislators have actually voted on climate in the California Environmental Scorecard.

Sources Cited

Cervantes Introduces The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 — Office of Senator Sabrina Cervantes, March 2026.
SB-1164 Elections. (2025-2026) — California Legislative Information.
SB-1360 Elections: translation of election materials. (2025-2026) — California Legislative Information.
Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U.S. ___ (2026), slip opinion — Supreme Court of the United States, decided April 29, 2026.
Louisiana v. Callais: Analyzing Whether a State Has Properly Used Race in Congressional Redistricting — Constitution Annotated, Congress.gov, Library of Congress.
Louisiana v. Callais case explainer — Brennan Center for Justice.
Attorney General Bonta Co-Leads Lawsuit Challenging President Trump’s Executive Order Restricting Mail Voting — California Department of Justice, April 3, 2026.
Attorney General Bonta Secures Back-to-Back Victories for Democracy, Court Blocks President Trump’s Second Elections Executive Order — California Department of Justice, June 2026.
Attorney General Bonta Secures Major Victory, Court Strikes Down Trump’s March 2025 Elections Executive Order — California Department of Justice, June 2026.
Tracker of Justice Department Requests for Voter Information — Brennan Center for Justice.
U.S. Supreme Court Leaves California’s Prop 50 Maps in Place for 2026 Midterms — California Courts Newsroom, February 4, 2026.
Cervantes’ Landmark California Voting Rights Act of 2026 Approved by Senate Committees — Office of Senator Sabrina Cervantes, April 2026.
Cervantes’ Landmark California Voting Rights Act Approved by State Senate — Office of Senator Sabrina Cervantes, May 2026.
SB 1360 bill tracker and text — CalMatters Digital Democracy.
Securing Fair Representation in California — ACLU of Southern California, March 2026.
Can States Promote Minority Representation? Assessing the Effects of the California Voting Rights Act — Loren Collingwood and Sean Long, Urban Affairs Review 57(3), 2021. Full text PDF.
Proposed legislation would open cities that switch to council district elections to lawsuits — Elaine Goodman, Palo Alto Daily Post, July 27, 2026.
Two-thirds of Californians believe US democracy is ‘under attack,’ says new Berkeley IGS Poll — Berkeley News, July 10, 2025.

California Environmental Voters