Elec. Code, § 18579 · Article 4. Corruption of Voting
Elec. Code, § 18579
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, any person who seizes or causes or assists in the seizure of ballots, election records, or certified voting technology or any portion thereof, before election results are certified pursuant to Section 15372, is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or 2 or 3 years.
(b) Any person with authority who directs one or more other persons subject to their supervision or authority to engage in the conduct prohibited by subdivision (a) shall be guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for two, three, or four years.
(c) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Seize” and “seizure” mean the removal from the custody and control of authorized elections officials, as specified in subdivision (d) of Section 15551, except as provided by Sections 15553 and 19230.
(2) “Certified voting technology” has the same meaning as defined in Section 17600.
(3) “Election record” means any document or record that is or will be subject to the preservation requirements in Section 17300 to Section 17306, inclusive.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2026, Ch. 330, Sec. 2. (AB 282) Effective September 19, 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=18579.
- Text hash
- sha256 fd3e7f0036af1beb3487e0c713e00e9da5e4651f4c25c38fa2f82fd9348d11c2
- Composed by
- 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
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Elections Code
- Elec. Code, § 15372Printed as Section 15372
- Elec. Code, § 15551Printed as Section 15551
- Elec. Code, § 15553Printed as Sections 15553 and 19230
- Elec. Code, § 17300Printed as Section 17300
- Elec. Code, § 17306Printed as Section 17306, inclusive
- Elec. Code, § 17600Printed as Section 17600
- Elec. Code, § 19230Printed as Sections 15553 and 19230
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.