Secretary of State Alex Padilla launched
HowToVoteForPresident.sos.ca.gov,
a new website that explains California voters’ options for voting for U.S. President in the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary. A voter’s political party affects which presidential candidates they can vote for in a primary election.
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Report of California Voter Registration:
Highest Percentage of Eligible Voters Registered in 67 Years
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California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released the latest statewide report of voter registration, ahead of the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary. As of October 1, 2019, there were 20,328,636 registered voters in California. This is an increase of 3,069,223 registered voters since the last Report of Registration at a similar point in the last presidential election cycle (January 5, 2016).
80.65 percent of eligible Californians are registered to vote. This is the highest percentage of eligible Californians registered to vote in more than 67 years.
The next report, with updated numbers, is scheduled to be release in late January of 2020.
Registration Comparison Between Presidential Primary 154 Day Reports
(October 1, 2019 Report vs. January 5, 2016 Report)
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Pre-registration played an important role in hitting this historic milestone. In an interview with
Teen Vogue, Secretary Padilla announced on
National Voter Registration Day that California has pre-registered more than 400,000 16- and 17-year-old voters in three years.
Secretary Padilla predicted that "we're on our way to 500,000 in 2020."
California started to offer voter pre-registration to eligible 16- and 17-year-olds in September 2016.
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Secretary Padilla Appointed as Complete Count Committee Chair
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Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Secretary of State Alex Padilla as chair of the California Complete Count Committee. Secretary Padilla leads the committee's efforts to ensure a complete and accurate count of the 2020 Census.
Secretary Padilla participated in a series of regional convenings and Implementation Plan Workshops across the state in preparation for the 2020 Census.
Twenty-five counties in California have been identified as hard-to-count, so the Secretary of State's office has compiled
Fact Sheets with county-specific information to help with census outreach efforts.
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The California State Archives Launched New Exhibits on California's History and Began Hosting the Cal Channel Archives
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The California State Archives continues modernization efforts by launching multiple new digital exhibits this year, covering aspects of California's history from pre-Civil War to as recent as the 1990's.
You can take a look at the exhibits below:
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The California State Archives is now home to the California Channel archives after the
cable television operators that funded Cal Channel voted earlier this year to cease operations. The Cal Channel was a public service network television channel funded entirely by California’s cable television operators from 1993-2019. The network was a means to provide Californians with direct access to “gavel-to-gavel" proceedings of the California Legislature and other public policy forums, as well as a balanced presentation of viewpoints.
The California Channel’s (Cal Channel) recordings from March 6, 2012 to September 13, 2019 are now hosted and available online through the California State Archives. After the Cal Channel ceased operations this fall, the State Archives, a division of the California Secretary of State, acquired the channel’s complete archives. Recordings from prior to March 6, 2012 were not digitized by Cal Channel, but are available by request from the State Archives.
The California State Senate streams live video and audio from all Floor Sessions and all regularly scheduled Committee Hearings. After the completion of a Floor Session or Committee Hearing, video is made available for viewing from the
Media Archive
page.
The California State Assembly streams live video and audio from all Floor Sessions and all regularly scheduled Committee Hearings. After the completion of a Floor Session or Committee Hearing, video is made available for viewing from the
Media Archive
page.
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bizfile California Continues to Make Business Easier in California
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The Secretary of State’s online business entity document filing and search hub —
bizfile California
— serves as an important tool for California entrepreneurs. In 2018, bizfile was expanded to allow Californians to file trademarks and servicemarks and form Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) online. Now in 2019, Californians can use an online form to
terminate their LLC
.
bizfile California also launched another online tool
–
trademark modification
–
to make it easier to do business in California. Now, businesses can file trademark renewals, assignments (transfer of ownership), and name changes online. In the 2018 – 2019 fiscal year, more than 1,000 of these modifications were filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
Because of the Business Programs Division's (BPD) hard work, they were awarded a 2019 Merit Award from t
he International Association of Commercial Administrators (
IACA
) for innovation through the Eureka Chatbot. Each year,
IACA encourages member jurisdictions who believe they have developed innovation through the implementation of a new or improved product or service to share their innovation. A select panel of experts carefully reviewed each submission and assigned a score in the areas of Effectiveness, Originality, Significance and Transferability, and Lessons Learned.
Congratulations to the BPD Team for their hard work and dedication to making it easier to do business in California!
Other tools available through
biz
file California include:
- LLC Statement of Information Online Submission Tool - Since the initial bizfile launch in June 2017, more than one million online LLC Statements of Information filings have been processed. In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, 453,254 submissions were processed online.
- California Business Search Tool - More than 14.7 million Corporation, LLC, and LP records are available for free download.
- How to Start a Business in California brochure and check list.
- Trademark Online Submission Tool - There have been more than 12,220 submissions since the tool was launched January 2018.
- LLC Formation Online Submission Tool - Launched in May 2018, the documents required to form an LLC can now be filed online. Since launch, we have processed 156,578 LLC Formation online submissions.
- Eureka Chatbot - Our new artificial intelligence search assistant—launched May 2018—helps customers easily navigate business resources on the Secretary of State’s website. Eureka has already answered more than 91,850 questions.
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10 More Counties Adopted the Voter's Choice Act
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During the 2018 General Elections, 5 counties (Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento, and San Mateo) adopted and implemented the
Voter's Choice Act.
Under this modern election model, every registered voter in these counties will automatically receive their ballot by mail and have options for how to return their ballot; by mail, to any ballot drop box in the county, or at any vote center in the county convenient to them.
This year, 10 more counties adopted the VCA model to increase voter accessibility and participation in the electoral process. The complete list of VCA counties is as follows:
- Amador
- Calaveras
- Butte
- El Dorado
- Fresno
- Los Angeles
- Madera
- Mariposa
- Napa
- Nevada
- Orange
- Sacramento
- San Mateo
- Santa Clara
- Tuolumne
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Secretary Padilla Appeals to Congress for Election Security Funding and Sets Deadline for Counties to Retire Old Voting Machines and Modernize Election Infrastructure
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In an effort to better secure our elections, Secretary Padilla testified in a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security hearing titled, “Defending Our Democracy: Building Partnerships to Protect America’s Elections.” This was part of a series of hearings on H.R. 1, the For the People Act. Read Secretary Padilla's full written testimony
here
. Following this testimony, t
o further assist with securing elections in California, Congress allocated $425 million in fund to the states intended for election security. California is expected to receive $39 million of the $425 million allotment.
In addition to federal funding, Governor Gavin Newsom and the legislature included $87.3 million in the 2018-2019 state budget to assist counted in replacing and upgrading their voting systems.
With federal and state funding in place, Secretary Padilla initiated the process for withdrawing certification or conditional approval of voting systems that were not tested or certified under California’s most recent higher security standards. All counties are now on track to implement more secure voting systems in time for 2020.
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