California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who became the first Black person to hold the office in 2021, is seeking a second four-year term.
As the incumbent and the only Democrat in the race, Weber is widely expected to win in November. Her main challenger is Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican. No Republican has won a statewide election in California since 2006.
One of the key issues in the campaign is California’s lengthy ballot-counting process. Under state law, county election officials have up to 30 days to count ballots and complete required audits. Critics, including Wagner, argue that the extended timeline weakens public confidence in election integrity, particularly when projected winners are sometimes sworn into office before the results are officially certified.
In an interview with CalMatters, Weber dismissed those concerns, saying they have been amplified by former President Donald Trump as part of broader criticism of California’s election system. She emphasized that ensuring every ballot is accurately counted is more important than delivering rapid results.
“I know the value of being fast for some folks,” Weber said. “For me, accuracy is far more important.”
Wagner contends that Weber has not done enough to push lawmakers to accelerate the vote-counting process. He has proposed ending the state’s policy of automatically mailing ballots to all registered voters—a practice made permanent during the COVID-19 pandemic—though such a change would require legislative approval. Wagner also supports moving up the deadline for certifying election results.
“Rather than wait 30 days, let’s make these changes that are right now causing people of all parties and no party to question: ‘Geez, is that really a fair election?’” Wagner said.
Weber, a former San Diego assemblymember, was appointed secretary of state by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021 and won a full term the following year. The daughter of Arkansas sharecroppers who left the Jim Crow South, she has built her political career around expanding voter access and increasing civic participation.
During her tenure, Weber has overseen several high-profile and often contentious elections, including the 2021 recall election targeting Newsom and disputes surrounding congressional redistricting. She says her priorities include expanding voter outreach in rural communities and encouraging voter registration among high school and college students.
Weber has also spent much of her time defending California’s election laws in court. She has challenged local governments accused of violating election regulations while also defending the state against legal challenges from both Democratic and Republican groups. Most recently, she successfully resisted a lawsuit from the Trump administration’s Department of Justice seeking access to California voter registration data.
“We fought to protect Californians’ voting rights,” Weber said. “If we were giving voter information away like candy, who would trust us to protect their records?”
At the same time, Weber has faced criticism from voting-access advocates who argue the state has not gone far enough to accommodate voters with disabilities. In 2024, disability rights groups sued her office over election laws that do not permit voters with disabilities to return ballots electronically, although the lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.