With less than three months until the general election, Darius Kemp, executive director of California Common Cause, says California must protect both election security and voter access for the state’s approximately 23 million eligible voters.
Kemp delivered that message during a June news conference at the State Capitol promoting Senate Bill (SB) 46 and SB 884, two measures that are part of the voter protection effort some lawmakers and advocates have dubbed the “Hands Off Our Elections” initiative.
“It’s important that California continues to move forward. We have to progress and not regress,” Kemp said. “Regression is going back in time, back to the 1950s and 1960s when Black people had to show extra identification, count jellybeans in a jar, and guess the number of clouds in the sky. That’s regression.”
SB 46, the “No Kings Act,” authored by Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), would prohibit the California Secretary of State from placing a presidential candidate on the ballot if that candidate does not meet constitutional eligibility requirements, including the two-term limit for presidents.
SB 884, the “Protect Our Polls Act,” was co-authored by Umberg and Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside). The bill would expand access to early-voting and ballot drop-off locations. It would also prohibit law enforcement officers — including federal immigration agents — from enforcing immigration laws or making arrests within 200 feet of a polling place while voting is underway.
Supporters say the bills respond to national rhetoric and policies aimed at restricting voting rights, which they compare to the voter-suppression tactics Black Americans faced after Reconstruction.
California Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots government watchdog. According to its website, the organization uses grassroots organizing, litigation, policy research and legislative advocacy to increase public participation in the political process.
Kemp, an Alabama native who became executive director of California Common Cause in June 2025, said California’s voting system has faced intense national scrutiny and partisan attacks. Much of the criticism has focused on the state’s vote-counting timeline and the Trump administration’s unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud and noncitizen voting.
Kemp said federal efforts to impose new voting restrictions on established election systems across the country echo the restrictive messages his family encountered in Alabama.
“I know my family history and my family lived that history, of voter suppression and intimidation,” Kemp said. “The reason why the Ku Klux Klan existed was partially to intimidate Black people from expressing their rights.”
“In California, we’re making it easier and safer for citizens to vote, and we’re not going to back down on that pledge to make sure that every Californian who can vote, and wants to vote, has the right to vote, and their vote counts,” he added.
Umberg said the bills are intended to protect election integrity, prevent voter intimidation and limit federal interference near polling locations.
