Gov. Code, § 12172.5 · Article 2. Duties
Gov. Code, § 12172.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) The Secretary of State is the chief elections officer of the state, and shall administer the provisions of the Elections Code. The Secretary of State shall see that elections are efficiently conducted and that state election laws are enforced. The Secretary of State may require elections officers to make reports concerning elections in their jurisdictions, which may include information about the identity of, and contact information for, the elections official who is responsible for conducting elections in the jurisdiction.
(b) If, at any time, the Secretary of State concludes that state election laws are not being enforced, the Secretary of State shall call the violation to the attention of the district attorney of the county or to the Attorney General. In these instances, the Secretary of State may assist the county elections officer in discharging the officer’s duties.
(c) In order to determine whether an elections law violation has occurred, the Secretary of State may examine voted, unvoted, spoiled, and canceled ballots, vote-counting computer programs, vote by mail ballot envelopes and applications, and supplies referred to in Section 14432 of the Elections Code. The Secretary of State may also examine any other records of elections officials as the Secretary of State finds necessary in making a determination under this subdivision, subject to the restrictions set forth in Article 2 (commencing with Section 7924.100) of Chapter 2 of Part 5 of Division 10 of Title 1.
(d) The Secretary of State may adopt regulations to ensure the uniform application and administration of state election laws.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 169. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Sec. 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.
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=GOV§ionNum=12172.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 db4ec8c79e3f8eb4dbf0d6171dbf8e7fa2895d043af43aa5beac9a6f7e4273ca
- 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.
Cited by 7 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Gov. Code, § 12172.5. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Elections Code
- Elec. Code, § 10Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
- Elec. Code, § 2501Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
- Elec. Code, § 3101Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
- Elec. Code, § 4005Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
- Elec. Code, § 15372Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
- Elec. Code, § 19212Printed as Section 12172.5 of the Government Code
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.