Political Reform

California Democrats believe that a healthy democracy is based on free and fair elections, with all eligible voters able to participate. Freedom to vote without obstruction and to have that vote counted are fundamental to voting rights. We oppose the culture of cronyism and corruption and support public financing of elections. We demand transparency and accountability from both our party and government. We will combat voter suppression and election subversion.

To promote honest leadership and open government, California Democrats will:

1. Work to end the doctrine of corporate persons and the idea that money is speech by actively working to overturn the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission;
2. Encourage the continued use of independent redistricting commissions to draw districts;
3. Actively work with county registrars, college and university administrators, and lawmakers to ensure that every college campus houses precinct polling operations, voter centers, or vote-by-mail (VBM) drop-off locations easily accessible to young voters;
4. Support lowering the voting age to 17 years of age and reinstatement of civics classes as a high school graduation requirement;
5. Support and encourage the implementation of legislation for full public financing of election campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels;
6. Work for increased voter participation by declaring Election Day a holiday;
7. Support investigating and prosecuting any and all forms of voter intimidation and election fraud, including misuse of social media to purposely mislead voters;
8. Demand safeguards and transparency in voting system software and vendors, including support for General Public License open source voting system software, voting machine certification, reliable-voter verifiable systems with a paper ballot as the ballot of record, robust auditing systems for all types of ballots cast, and thorough chain-of-custody and recount procedures;
9. Encourage a ban on any and all forms of Internet or wireless voting, and prohibition of any connection from the Internet to any component of any election, vote-counting, or tabulating system;
10. Support the ability of local communities to choose alternative voting systems, such as ranked-choice voting and instant-runoff voting;
11. Support and defend voter protection under the federal Voting Rights Act and the California Voting Rights Act;
12. Work toward abolishing the Electoral College and support its replacement with a national popular vote or a system where state electors are assigned proportional to each candidate’s share of the vote;
13. Encourage the placement of polling sites in tribal communities with large populations on reservations and surrounding areas, including urban American Indian communities;
14. Demand the end of “pay-to-play” politics by banning lobbyists from bundling sizable campaign donations;
15. Encourage the replacement of at-large election methods with the adoption of by-district and/or alternative voting methods when it maintains the spirit of the California Voting Rights Act;
16. Support simple majority voter thresholds for passage of revenue raising measures;
17. Support and expand self-governance and better representation and decision making for the estimated 6,000,000 Californians who live in unincorporated areas without local municipal decision-making;
18. Actively defend and protect existing state measures to make voting widely accessible to all Californians, including the availability of early voting, vote-by-mail, and same-day voter registration; the validity of vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received within a certain period afterward; and a robust and accessible method for curing defective ballots; and,
19. Reject the unequal treatment of residents of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U,S, territories and unequivocally support statehood for the District of Columbia.