Election Issues for California by Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State - via Zoom

Alex Padilla is the California Secretary of State. He is focused on modernizing the office, increasing voter registration and participation, and strengthening voting rights.  He sponsored legislation in 2015 to establish vote centers, expand early voting, and implement same-day conditional voter registration through the Voter’s Choice Act. In 2018, he launched the California Motor Voter program, which automatically registers eligible Californians to vote when they obtain or renew their state ID or driver’s license. The program registered one million new voters in its first year alone.

Secretary Padilla oversaw the state’s historic General Election in 2018 where 64.5 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. This represented the highest turnout for a Gubernatorial Election since 1982. In February of 2020, California reached a record of more than 20.6 million registered voters.

Previously, he served two terms in the San Fernando Valley in the California State Senate and represented the east San Fernando Valley on the Los Angeles City Council. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, attended local public schools, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering.