What Are Senate Bills 398 and 42?

The bills aim to reform campaign finance limitations, specifically in response to Musk's voter lottery.

S.B. 398 makes it a crime to provide payment based on voting or voter registration, with a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment for up to three years for a person "to knowingly or willfully pay or offer to pay money or other valuable consideration to another person with the intent to induce the person to vote or to register to vote, or where the payment is contingent upon whether the person voted or the person’s voter registration status."

S.B. 42 is a measure that will appear on the November 2026 ballot, seeking to repeal a ban on public financing of elections in California so that cities and counties can create programs for public funding and reduce the reliance on millionaires and billionaires.

Current legislation allows charter cities Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco to create publicly financed programs, but that could apply to the wider state if passed.

California State Senator Tom Umberg, a Democrat, proposed both bills in order to commit the state to "fair, transparent, and accessible elections." Fellow Democrats State Senator Ben Allen and California Assemblymember Alex Lee joined Umberg in proposing S.B. 42, while Democratic State Senator Josh Becker joined him in proposing S.B. 398.

Read more here: Newsweek