League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) Executive Director Jenny Farrell joined Democratic leaders and voting rights experts in Los Angeles for a critical “shadow hearing” on the state of our democracy. Farrell delivered powerful testimony emphasizing that California’s elections are secure and accessible.

She warned against restrictive “election integrity” policies—such as the federal SAVE Act and similar state-level initiatives—that create unnecessary barriers for women, seniors, and communities of color.

While some seek to narrow the path to the ballot, the League remains steadfast in its mission to ensure every eligible Californian can vote with confidence.

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Jenny Farrell’s Oral Testimony:

Chair, Members of Congress, thank you for the opportunity to speak today.  

I am here on behalf of the League of Women Voters of California, an  organization founded over a century ago to fight for the rights of women to vote  and become full participants in our democracy. Since 1920, our mission has  remained the same: to ensure that every eligible voter can participate fully,  freely, and confidently in our elections.  

That mission is as urgent today as it was then.  

Across the country, we are seeing a troubling pattern: policies framed as  “election integrity” that, in reality, narrow access to the ballot. Chief among  these are voter ID laws and proposals like the federal SAVE Act – and now, a  similar voter ID initiative likely headed to the California ballot this November.  

These efforts are cut from the same cloth.  

They disproportionately burden voters who already face barriers. Women who  have changed their names due to marriage may find that their identification  does not match voter rolls. Communities of color, voters with disabilities,  seniors, and low-income voters are less likely to have the required  documentation readily available. These are not hypothetical concerns – they  are predictable outcomes.  

And they are completely unnecessary.  

Because the truth is: voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. And by extraordinarily,  I mean you are more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to commit  voter fraud in the United States. Yet we are being asked to restructure our  entire democratic system around a problem that does not exist. 

Meanwhile, we have real-world evidence of the harm these policies cause.  

In Kansas, a proof-of-citizenship requirement enacted in 2013 blocked over  30,000 eligible voters from registering. In Texas, after new voter ID  requirements for mail ballots were implemented in 2022, more than 24,000  ballots were rejected in a single primary, meaning that 1 in 8 voters who had  always voted by mail suddenly had their ballots thrown out due to new  technical errors.  

These are cautionary tales. And we should heed them.  

Here in California, we are working to move in the opposite direction – to  expand access, not restrict it.  

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 would restore key protections that  have been weakened at the federal level, including a state-level preclearance  system for jurisdictions with histories of discrimination, expanded language  access for voters, and stronger tools to challenge practices that dilute or  suppress votes.  

Protecting democracy today requires vigilance on every front – policy,  education, and litigation.  

But I want to be clear about something: California’s elections are strong. They  are secure, accessible, and run by dedicated professionals who take their  responsibility seriously. Our goal is not to fix a broken system – it is to protect a  working one from unnecessary and harmful interference.  

Thank you.