§ 18564.5 — California Elections Code

(a) The Secretary of State, Attorney General, and any local elections official in the county in which the act occurs, may bring a civil action against an individual, business, or other legal entity that commits any of the following acts before, during, or after an election:

(1) Tampers, interferes, or attempts to interfere with the correct operation of, or willfully damages in order to prevent the use of, any voting machine, voting device, voting system, vote tabulating device, or ballot tally software.

(2) Interferes or attempts to interfere with the secrecy of voting or interferes or attempts to interfere with ballot tally software program source codes.

(3) Knowingly, and without authorization, gains access to or provides another person or persons with access to a voting machine for the purpose of committing one of the acts specified by this section.

(4) Willfully substitutes or attempts to substitute forged, counterfeit, or malicious ballot tally software program source codes.

(5) Knowingly, and without authorization, inserts or causes the insertion of uncertified hardware, software, or firmware, for whatever purpose, into any voting machine, voting device, voting system, vote tabulating device, or ballot tally software.

(6) Fails to notify the Secretary of State prior to any change in hardware, software, or firmware to a voting machine, voting device, voting system, or vote tabulating device, certified or conditionally certified for use in this state.

(7) Takes any document, record, certified voting technology, or electronic data, as those terms are defined in Section 17600, or portions thereof including source code, or any other election-related material or equipment necessary to the conduct of an election, from the custody of the elections official in violation of subdivision (d) of Section 15551.

(b) A civil action may be brought pursuant to this section for a civil penalty not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for each act and for injunctive relief, if appropriate.

(Amended by Stats. 2026, Ch. 341, Sec. 5. (SB 1418) Effective September 19, 2026.)