Elec. Code, § 18545 · Article 3. Intimidation of Voters
Elec. Code, § 18545
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Any person who hires or arranges for any other person in possession of a firearm or any uniformed law enforcement officer, private guard, or security personnel or any person who is wearing a uniform of a law enforcement officer, private guard, or security personnel, to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place or a county elections office, is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code and by a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
(b) This section does not apply to any of the following:
(1) The owner or manager of the facility or property in which the polling place is located if the private guard or security personnel is not hired or arranged solely for the day on which the election is held.
(2) A person who hires or arranges for another person described in subdivision (a) to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place or a county elections office pursuant to a court order.
(3) (A) A person who hires or arranges for another person described in subdivision (a) to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place or a county elections office with the written authorization of the appropriate elections official, provided that neither the Secretary of State nor the Attorney General objected to that authorization, in writing, after it was granted.
(B) A person who hires or arranges for another person described in subdivision (a) to be stationed or posted at a polling place or county elections office with written authorization pursuant to subparagraph (A), which is subsequently objected to by the Secretary of State or Attorney General, shall not be subject to criminal penalties pursuant to this section, unless they have knowledge of the objection, and after gaining such knowledge, permits the person they hired or arranged for to remain stationed or posted at the polling place or elections office.
(c) For purposes of this section, “law enforcement officer” means either of the following:
(1) A peace officer as defined in Section 830 of the Penal Code.
(2) An officer or agent of a federal law enforcement agency or any person acting on behalf of a federal law enforcement agency.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2026, Ch. 10, Sec. 7. (SB 73) Effective May 27, 2026.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC§ionNum=18545.
- Text hash
- sha256 c895ddc3d40dc4fb2f4d1dbb69074a17235bbc6016100f2d6d94a592eb2f5e46
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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