SB 321 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Late signature curing expenditure reports.

Summary

The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring the filing of reports of contributions and expenditures. Existing law requires a committee that makes an independent expenditure for or against a specific candidate or measure during the 90-day period preceding the date of the election or on the date of the election to report the independent expenditure within 24 hours of the time it is made, as specified. Existing law requires an elections official, upon receiving a vote by mail ballot, to compare the signature on the identification envelope with the voter's signature appearing on specified voter registration records. Existing law requires the elections official to notify a voter whose signature does not match or who failed to sign the envelope of the opportunity to verify the signature or provide a signature, as applicable. This bill would require a committee that makes a late signature curing expenditure, as defined, to report the late signature curing expenditure within 24 hours of the time it is made. The bill would define "late signature curing expenditure" to mean an expenditure made by a committee related to ballot curing activities that occurs after the date of the election and before the certification of the election, as specified. The bill would provide that this late signature curing expenditure report is in addition to any other campaign statement required under the act. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 11, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

05/06/25 - Amended Senate → SB321 · 1 edit

MINOR

No substantive policy changes were made between these two versions. The diff reflects a transition from a formatted legislative document (with line numbers, page headers, and traditional bill layout) to a web-rendered version of the same bill text from a state legislature website. All operative provisions, definitions, and requirements remain identical.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted from a printed legislative document with line numbers and page headers into a web-based HTML rendering that includes site navigation elements (home, accessibility, FAQ, search, etc.). No changes to the actual statutory language were made.

02/11/25 - Introduced → 03/17/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Mar 17, 2025

MODERATE

SB 321 was dramatically expanded from a minor grammatical fix to Section 85500 into a substantive new law requiring committees to report 'late signature curing expenditures' within 24 hours. The amended bill adds two new Government Code sections defining and regulating reporting of spending on ballot curing activities that occur after Election Day but before election certification, creating a transparency requirement for a previously unreported category of political spending.

Scope change

Expanded from a nonsubstantive grammatical correction to Section 85500 into a new substantive reporting regime covering all committees that spend on post-election ballot curing activities, with a 24-hour filing deadline and detailed content requirements.

DEFINITION

New Section 82036.6 defines 'late signature curing expenditure' as spending by a committee on ballot curing activities (under Elections Code Section 3019) that occurs after the election date and before certification, including costs of contacting voters about signature verification or unsigned envelopes.

REQUIREMENT

New Section 84208 requires committees making late signature curing expenditures to file a report within 24 hours, specifying filing methods (online, email, fax, overnight delivery, personal delivery), required content (committee name/address, candidate or measure details, support/oppose status, amount, date, description of goods or services), and where the report must be filed.

SCOPE

The bill's scope expanded from a single nonsubstantive edit to Section 85500 to adding two entirely new sections (82036.6 and 84208) creating a new reporting obligation for a previously unregulated category of post-election spending.

ENFORCEMENT

The vote requirement changed from majority to two-thirds of each house, reflecting that the bill now substantively amends the Political Reform Act of 1974 (an initiative measure). Fiscal committee and state-mandated local program designations both changed from 'no' to 'yes.'

TECHNICAL

Added a no-reimbursement clause (Section 3) stating no state reimbursement is required for local agency costs, and a declaration (Section 4) that the bill furthers the purposes of the Political Reform Act.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 23, 2025

Upper · Passed

May 23 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.

upper

May 6, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Apr 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 933.) (April 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Mar 26, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A.

upper

Mar 17, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 19, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors