Padilla deserves another term as secretary of state

When Alex Padilla ran for secretary of state in 2014, we said the office needed a shakeup after Debra Bowen’s eight lackluster years produced big promises but few results.

Padilla did just that for the past four years. He has arguably been California’s best secretary of state since Jerry

Brown held the office from 1971-74 and won cases against Standard Oil, ITT, Gulf Oil and Mobil for violating campaign finance laws. Voters should re-elect Padilla, who faces a weak field of opponents in the June 5 primary.

We didn’t recommend him in 2014, instead favoring Republican Pete Peterson, who lost by 7 percentage points in the general election. Padilla has won us over with his commitment to revamping the state election system with everyone receiving a mail ballot. He has increased the state’s registration of new voters and exposed President Trump’s false claims of California voter fraud.

When Padilla took office, 17 million of the 24.3 million eligible Californians were registered to vote. That number is expected to grow to close to 20 million by the November election, thanks largely to legislation Padilla sponsored that automatically registers voters when they renew their driver’s licenses.

Padilla took the innovative step of asking high school students to preregister to vote. His program allows 16- and 17-yearolds to register in advance of their 18th birthdays. More than 100,000 have taken advantage of the opportunity. He also created a new website, HighSchool. sos.ca.gov, providing information and resources for students who want to be civically active, including learning how to organize on-campus voter registration drives.

Padilla worked with Attorney General Xavier Becerra to file a lawsuit challenging Trump’s effort to undermine the 2020 census count by pushing the Department of Justice to add a citizenship question to the census process. Padilla argued that the question defeats the purpose of the census — to get a fair and accurate population count. It could also reduce California’s federal funding dollars and cause the state to lose one seat in the House of Representatives. Padilla also has debunked the president’s unsubstantiated claims that ineligible voters cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election.

Charges of voter fraud are the centerpiece of the campaign of Padilla’s chief opponent, Republican attorney Mark Meuser of Walnut Creek. But he can’t offer specific examples to bolster his case, primarily because study after study shows the argument is bogus. Meuser rails about the need for the state to clean up its voter rolls of people who are dead or have moved. California should clean up its rolls, but no study has ever found it to be a serious concern.

The most interesting candidate in the race is former Santa Monica City Councilman Michael Feinstein, a member of the Green Party who wants to do away with the state’s election system. Feinstein advocates a ranked-choice system with a 500-member Legislature, modeled after those used by many European countries. He also would push for comprehensive campaign finance reforms to level the playing field for candidates. Feinstein has a nearzero chance of advancing to the November runoff, but his plan makes for good debate.

None of the other five candidates in the race merit serious consideration.

Padilla has championed Californians’ right to vote and offered substantial improvements in the state’s election system. He deserves re-election.