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SECURING OUR VOTE, RESTORING OUR VOICE.

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Our KEY ISSUES summarized

The Save California Initiative (SCI) focuses on securing the state's election system and enacting broader systemic political reforms. Its priority platform addresses ballot integrity by advocating for the elimination of universal mail-in voting, banning third-party ballot harvesting, mandating strict photo voter ID laws, conducting regular database audits to clean up voter rolls, and enforcing an Election Day receipt deadline for ballots to ensure a more transparent and timely counting process. Beyond direct election security, the PAC champions several secondary governance reforms aimed at the Sacramento political establishment. These include ending the legislative practice of "gut-and-amend," shifting the drafting of ballot initiative titles to an independent non-partisan body, reforming the "top-two" primary system, protecting public sector workers from non-consensual union political spending, and defending local municipal sovereignty against state-level overreach.

PRIORITY ISSUES

The Problem:

California’s current system of mailing a paper ballot to every registered voter on the rolls—regardless of active status—creates millions of unsupervised ballots. Furthermore, legalized third-party ballot collection ("ballot harvesting") allows political operatives to collect and submit ballots, leaving the chain of custody highly vulnerable to coercion, loss, or manipulation.

Our Solution:

  • End Universal Mail-In Voting: Return to an application-based absentee voting system, ensuring ballots are only sent to voters who actively request them.

  • Ban Ballot Harvesting: Restrict ballot return assistance to immediate family members, household members, or designated caregivers, ensuring a secure and verifiable chain of custody for every vote cast.

The Problem:

Inadequate maintenance of voter registration databases has left California’s voter rolls cluttered with deceased individuals, residents who have moved out of state, and non-citizens. These "phantom voters" pose a significant vulnerability, particularly under a universal mail-in system.

Our Solution:

  • Mandatory Roll Audits: Require county registrars to conduct biannual, rigorous database cleanups using federal databases, the Social Security Death Index, and interstate verification systems like the National Change of Address database.

  • Verify Citizenship: Ensure that voter registration systems are directly integrated with the DMV and immigration databases to prevent non-citizens from being automatically registered to vote.

The Problem:

California is one of the few states that does not require voters to verify their identity with a photo ID at the ballot box. Signature verification for mail-in ballots is often subjective, inconsistent, and highly prone to human error or lax enforcement.

Our Solution:

  • Implement Strict Voter ID Laws: Require a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license, state ID, passport, or military ID) to vote in person.

  • Secure Mail-In Verification: Require mail-in voters to write their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on the return envelope to verify their identity before the ballot is processed.

The Problem:

Weeks of delayed tabulations erode public trust and open the door to skepticism. Furthermore, restrictive rules in many counties prevent bipartisan observers from effectively monitoring the signature verification and ballot-processing stages.

Our Solution:

  • Enforce an Election Day Deadline: Amend state law to require that all mail-in ballots must be physically received by county election offices by 8:00 PM on Election Day to be counted.

  • Guaranteed Observer Access: Mandate clear, uniform state guidelines that allow bipartisan observers meaningful, unobstructed physical proximity to view all stages of the signature verification, processing, and counting of ballots.

  • Standardized Post-Election Audits: Require every county to perform robust, hand-counted risk-limiting audits of a random percentage of ballots before results are certified.

SECONDARY ISSUES

The Problem:

The California State Legislature frequently utilizes a tactic known as "gut-and-amend." Lawmakers take an existing bill that has already cleared committee hurdles, strip out its entire text, and insert a completely new, often highly controversial, piece of legislation at the last minute. This tactic bypasses public hearings, committee debates, and public scrutiny. (For example, in June 2026, critics raised alarms when a budget trailer bill, AB 181, was gutted and amended to strip authority from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction just as a conservative candidate gained momentum in the primary)[1].

Our Solution:

  • Sponsor a constitutional amendment establishing a strict “72-Hour Print Rule” and mandatory public committee hearings for any bill that undergoes a substantial change in topic.

  • Legally define and prohibit the practice of completely swapping unrelated legislative subjects within the same bill number.

The Problem:

Under current law, the state Attorney General (an elected partisan office) has the sole authority to draft the official title and summary of ballot measures that appear on the ballot and in the voter guide. Conservatives argue that progressive Attorneys General routinely use biased, misleading, or alarmist language to sink conservative-backed initiatives (such as tax-limiting measures or voter ID laws) while using favorable language for progressive measures.

Our Solution:

  • Strip the Attorney General of this power. Transfer the responsibility of writing neutral, plain-English ballot titles and summaries to an independent, non-partisan body, such as the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) or a bipartisan panel of retired judges[2].

The Problem:

Established by Proposition 14 in 2010, California’s "top-two" open primary system forces all candidates, regardless of party, onto a single primary ballot[3]. The top two advance to November, which often results in two candidates of the same party facing off in the general election. Conservatives argue this system shuts out minor parties, creates voter confusion, and leads to "lockout" math—where a fractured field of candidates from the majority party can accidentally hand the general election spots to the minority party, or vice versa

Our Solution:

  • Overhaul the system by supporting a return to traditional partisan primaries or transitioning to a “top-one” system, where the highest vote-getter from each officially recognized political party automatically qualifies for the November ballot[5]. This ensures voters always have a distinct choice of political platforms in the general election.

The Problem:

Public-sector unions (such as the California Teachers Association) exert massive influence over state policy by using mandatory member dues to fund political campaigns, lobbying efforts, and independent expenditure committees. Conservatives argue this creates a conflict of interest, where politicians negotiate contracts with the very unions that funded their campaigns, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

Our Solution:

  • Support “Paycheck Protection” Legislation: Require public-sector unions to obtain explicit, annual, written consent from individual workers before any portion of their dues can be used for political or lobbying purposes.

The Problem:

In deep-blue California, conservative-leaning cities and counties (such as Shasta County with Measure B or Huntington Beach with local charter amendments) often vote to implement local regulations regarding municipal elections, parental rights, or book policies[6][7]. However, the state government frequently steps in with lawsuits or statewide bans to override these local decisions[6][7].

Our Solution:

  • Provide legal and financial support to defend local charter cities and counties in court against state overreach[6].

  • Propose statewide legislation to codify the constitutional right of local municipalities to govern their own local elections, administrative procedures, and community standards without state interference.

HOW YOU CAN HELP!

Volunteer Action: Secure "Ballot Chasing" and Voter Education

  • Educational Canvassing: Volunteers can walk neighborhoods or run phone banks to educate voters on how to securely submit their own ballots. This includes instructing voters to personally mail their ballots, drop them off at official county drop boxes, or only entrust them to verified family members rather than unknown third-party collectors.

  • Providing Legal Alternatives: In states where ballot collection remains legal, volunteers can staff secure, PAC-monitored drop-off locations to ensure that conservative-leaning voters have a trusted, documented pathway to get their ballots to election offices without relying on partisan political operatives.

Volunteer Action: Crowdsourced Voter Roll Auditing

  • Data Verification Projects: Volunteers can participate in “voter roll scrubbing” initiatives. Under the guidance of data analysts, volunteers can review public voter registration data to cross-reference addresses.

  • Filing Formal Challenges: If volunteers identify voters registered at commercial addresses (such as empty lots, government buildings, or vacant storefronts), deceased individuals, or people who have moved out of state, they can assist in drafting and filing formal registration challenges with county registrars.

Volunteer Action: Signature Gathering and Municipal Advocacy

  • Petition Drives: To bypass a resistant state legislature, the PAC may sponsor a statewide ballot initiative to mandate photo voter ID. Volunteers are essential for gathering the hundreds of thousands of physical signatures required to place such a measure on the ballot.

  • Municipal Level Advocacy: In charter cities, volunteers can petition local city councils to draft and pass local voter ID ordinances for municipal elections (similar to efforts in cities like Huntington Beach).

Volunteer Action: Serving as Credentialed Election Observers and Poll Workers

  • Poll Watching and Observing: Volunteers can undergo specialized training provided by the PAC to serve as official, credentialed election observers. They can spend shifts at county ballot-processing facilities, monitoring the signature-verification process, ballot-opening procedures, and duplication of damaged ballots.

  • Working the Polls: The PAC can encourage volunteers to sign up directly with their county registrars as paid or volunteer poll workers. Having reform-minded citizens directly processing voters and ballots at polling places ensures that existing rules are strictly and fairly enforced.

Volunteer Action: Grassroots Lobbying, Petitioning, and Public Testimony

  • Statewide Initiative Petitions: Reforms such as removing the Attorney General’s ballot-drafting power, ending the “top-two” primary, or instituting “paycheck protection” for union members would require statewide constitutional amendments. Volunteers would serve as the backbone of the signature-collection campaigns.

  • Grassroots Pressure Campaigns: For legislative abuses like “gut-and-amend,” volunteers can organize mass call-in and email campaigns targeting swing-district legislators to pressure them into voting against bills passed through non-transparent means.

  • Local Government Advocacy: To defend home rule and local sovereignty, volunteers can attend local Board of Supervisors and City Council meetings to speak during public comment sessions, urging local leaders to stand firm against state-level mandates that infringe on municipal self-governance.