Elec. Code, § 2166 · Article 4. Forms
Elec. Code, § 2166
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Any person filing with the county elections official a new affidavit of registration or reregistration may have the information relating to his or her residence address, telephone number, and email address appearing on the affidavit, or any list or roster or index prepared therefrom, declared confidential upon order of a superior court issued upon a showing of good cause that a life-threatening circumstance exists to the voter or a member of the voter’s household, and naming the county elections official as a party.
(b) Any person granted confidential voter status under subdivision (a) shall:
(1) Provide a valid mailing address and be considered a vote by mail voter for all subsequent elections or until the county elections official is notified otherwise by the court or in writing by the voter. A voter requesting termination of vote by mail status thereby consents to placement of his or her residence address, telephone number, and email address in the roster of voters.
(2) The elections official, in producing any list, roster, or index shall exclude voters with a confidential voter status.
(3) Within 60 days of moving to a new county, obtain an order from the superior court of the new county pursuant to subdivision (a). The elections official of the new county, upon notice of the confidential voter moving into the county, shall do all of the following:
(A) Contact the confidential voter and provide information regarding the application for confidential voter status in the new county.
(B) Honor the confidential voter status from the former county for 60 days from the date of notice.
(C) Pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b), exclude the confidential voter in any list, roster, or index during the 60-day period.
(D) Remove the confidential voter status if the new voter has not provided a court order to the new county during the 60-day period.
(c) No action in negligence may be maintained against any government entity or officer or employee thereof as a result of the disclosure of the information which is the subject of this section unless by a showing of gross negligence or willfulness.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 728, Sec. 35. (AB 1020) Effective January 1, 2016. Operative September 26, 2016, when the Secretary of State issued the certification prescribed by Stats. 2015, Ch. 728, Sec. 88.
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=2166.
- Text hash
- sha256 38c42b7294756f32d842fbe3bd0c003ffef8ca1b8c02447f50c120505895bc44
- 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
Cited by 6 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Elec. Code, § 2166. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Elections Code
- Elec. Code, § 2194Printed as Sections 2166, 2166.5, 2166.7, 2166.8, 2166.9, and 2188
- Elec. Code, § 2227Printed as Section 2166, 2166.5, 2166.7, 2166.8, or 2166.9 of this code
- Elec. Code, § 2269Printed as Section 2166
- Elec. Code, § 3002Printed as Section 2166
- Elec. Code, § 8040Printed as Section 2166, 2166.5, 2166.7, 2166.8, or 2166.9
- Elec. Code, § 10226.3Printed as Section 2166, 2166.5, 2166.7, 2166.8, or 2166.9
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.