From expanding voter registration opportunities to helping people get to the polls on Election Day, the candidates for California secretary of state have various ideas on how to improve the state’s elections.
Four candidates are on the June 2 primary ballot for secretary of state: Democratic incumbent Shirley Weber, Republican Don Wagner and Green Party candidates Gary Blenner and Michael Feinstein.
Feinstein, Wagner and Weber all emphasized the important role the office plays in protecting voters’ rights and access to voting, but they vary on ways they believe the state can better ensure its elections are free from interference and build trust with voters.
Wagner, in the Southern California News Group’s 2026 Primary Voter Guide, said he’d like to do away with California’s practice of mailing ballots to all registered voters.
“Having so many ballots out there, coupled with bloated voting rolls, allows for the possibility of interference and illegal influence over our elections,” said Wagner, a member of Orange County’s Board of Supervisors. “And even if such interference is not happening, the widespread perception of such interference undermines confidence in the system.”
It’s been an “ongoing challenge” to build trust in voting systems nationwide, said Weber, who has served as secretary of state since 2021.
“The courts, research centers, governmental agencies and the executive branches have consistently found no evidence to support the idea that our elections are untrustworthy,” said Weber.
“To help expand that trust, we partner with nonprofit organizations and trusted messengers to help carry accurate information statewide. We also invest in our high school students who work at polling places, helping build civic engagement for the next generation. We also utilize social media platforms that represent various ethnic and social groups to help magnify messages in every community,” she added.
Meanwhile, Feinstein, a former Santa Monica mayor, alleged it’s the Trump administration that is the “biggest threat to the integrity of California’s elections.”
“The Trump administration seeks to interfere and exert partisan influence over states’ elections and cast unsubstantiated doubt about — and possibly even manipulate — election results,” said Feinstein.
“A second threat comes from disinformation/misinformation operations — foreign and domestic — in our elections,” Feinstein added. “These have undue influence because voters often lack needed, accurate information, highlighting a voter’s rights issue — all voters deserve a meaningful baseline of information about all choices before them.”
But Wagner, the Republican, blames “misguided actions of the legislature” for sowing distrust in the state’s election system.
“The mailing of ballots to every name on the bloated voting rolls, the extremely long ‘cure and correct’ period and the 30-day counting period before certification are a few examples of changes to election laws that have led to widespread distrust,” said Wagner.
“As secretary of state, I will work to undo these state election laws to restore transparency and trust,” said Wagner.
Blenner did not participate in the Southern California News Group’s Voter Guide, but his campaign website said he supports public financing of campaigns, expanding the state Assembly and ranked choice voting. He is a former trustee of the Center Joint Unified School District’s school board in Sacramento County.
Aside from overseeing the state’s elections, Weber said managing the state archives is another important role of the job. Her office is in the process of expanding the genealogy capacity of the archives for Californians to be able to trace their lineage back several hundred years.
And each year, hundreds of thousands of businesses register with the secretary of state’s office, she noted.
Wagner, if elected, said he would like to see better handling of campaign and lobbying disclosure laws and filings.
“The system has not been as robust as the people of California deserve,” Wagner said, calling issues with Cal-Access, the website used to track campaign finance and lobbying, “unacceptable.”
Feinstein, meanwhile, said he supports overhauling California’s jungle primary system, where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. That system, in place for over a decade, “greatly restricts voter choice,” said Feinstein.
Both Weber and Feinstein oppose a proposed ballot measure that would require voters to show an ID at the polls or write the last four digits of their ID on mailed ballots. Both said they would enforce the new law as secretary of state if it ended up on the November general election ballot and passed.
Wagner supports the effort and also said he would ensure it’s implemented, should voters back it.
“But more importantly, since much of the state’s current political establishment opposes it, and has a history of not vigorously enforcing — or suing to stop — initiatives they don’t like, I pledge to the people of California that I will sue to protect voter ID if passed by the people,” said Wagner.
Election Day is June 2 — but registered voters should have already received their ballots in the mail and can already return their ballots through the mail or drop boxes.
The top two vote-getters in this race advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.