Bill aimed at fighting political dirty tricks signed into law

Law enforcement agencies have received new tools to fight political dirty tricks under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week.

AB 1678 does three key things. First, it directs the secretary of state to adopt regulations on best data storage and security practices for campaigns. Second, it requires any person who receives voter information from a data breach to report this fact to the secretary of state’s office “without unreasonable delay.”

Third, the new law makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally deceive voters about the timing or voting locations for an election. This comes partly in response to numerous cases of attempted voter deception in recent years, including cases in which particular groups received misleading or fake voting pamphlets.

The law updates older statutes that did not clearly address misinformation campaigns over the internet. A bill analysis from the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting cited numerous attempts to steal voter information in California.

“Current law only prohibits the dissemination of misinformation regarding a voter’s polling place,” the bill’s author, Assemblyman Mark Berman, D-Menlo Park, told the full Assembly. “This bill would expand the law to encompass the intentional distribution of false information regarding the time, place or manner of voting. That would include the distribution of such misinformation via the internet.”

The bill passed with near-unanimous support. As an urgency measure that passed with at least two-thirds of the vote in both houses, the new law takes effect immediately — in time for the November general election.

AB 1678 also adds to the growing thicket of campaign disclosures that have made political law one of the faster growing legal segments in California. This is especially true about the requirement to disclose data received from a breach, even if one did not take part in the initial cybercrime.

The bill is meant to work in concert with another pending measure by Berman, who is an attorney. AB 3075 would create an office of cybersecurity in the secretary of state’s office, tasked with coordinating efforts to stop election interference. That bill is pending in the state Senate. However, the most ambitious parts of AB 1678 were amended out in March. The earlier version would have allowed local agencies, school districts and community college districts to establish their own campaign finance programs. It would have lifted prohibitions on these groups spending money for or against candidates or ballot measures.

The earlier version was widely opposed by Republicans. It was ultimately scuttled after a taxpayer group challenged another law. SB 1107 would have allowed candidates to accept public sector money if a local government had set up a fund for that purpose.

In the midst of hearings over AB 1678 last August, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley ruled SB 1107 violated Proposition 73. This is a 1988 voter initiative that banned the use of public money in elections.

An opinion from the legislative counsel then found that SB 1107 and similar measures would require voter approval because of Proposition 73. AB 1678’s sponsor and its top supporter — Secretary of State Alex Padilla and the League of Women Voters of California — declined to officially support the weakened version of their bill.