---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elections: deceptive audio or visual media."
description: "Existing law prohibits a person or specified entity from, with actual malice, producing, distributing, publishing, or broadcasting campaign material, as defined, that contains (1) a picture or photograph of a person or persons into which the image of a candidate for public office is superimposed or (2) a picture or photograph of a candidate for public office into which the image of another person or persons is superimposed, unless the campaign material contains a specified disclosure."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 730"
citation: "California AB 730 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Elections: deceptive audio or visual media."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Berman"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 28
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-02-19"
last_action: "2019-10-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1f2a3121-1281-4faa-9e44-44bfc8b2a0c0"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730"
source_hash: "2357ef00074a304f96c0811b49a708ed32787185662f6b1b821b5fe6c0611c8b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 730 (20192020) — Elections: deceptive audio or visual media.

Existing law prohibits a person or specified entity from, with actual malice, producing, distributing, publishing, or broadcasting campaign material, as defined, that contains (1) a picture or photograph of a person or persons into which the image of a candidate for public office is superimposed or (2) a picture or photograph of a candidate for public office into which the image of another person or persons is superimposed, unless the campaign material contains a specified disclosure.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/19/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73099INT)
2. **06/19/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73098AMD)
3. **06/25/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73097AMD)
4. **08/13/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73096AMD)
5. **09/10/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73095AMD)
6. **10/03/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73093CHP)
7. **AB730** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730)
8. **09/19/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730&version=20190AB73094ENR)

## Votes

- AB 730 Berman Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **67–4** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Rules] — **3–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **6–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- With recommendation: That Senate amendments be concurred in. — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 730 Berman Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB730 Berman et al. By Hertzberg — **29–7** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Berman — primary (person)
- Grayson — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-19** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2019-02-28** Referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-01** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (May 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-05-02** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1587.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-09** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-22** Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-29** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2019-06-12** In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2019-06-19** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-02** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on RLS. (Ayes 3. Noes 1.) (July 2). Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-07-03** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-08-12** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 6. Noes 2.) (July 9). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-08-13** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-10** Joint Rule 61 suspended. (Ayes 28. Noes 8. Page 2733.)
- **2019-09-10** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 29. Noes 7. Page 2926.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-13** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2019-09-13** Re-referred to Com. on E. & R. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2019-09-13** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 3552.)
- **2019-09-13** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (September 13). `committee-passage`
- **2019-09-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 67. Noes 4. Page 3569.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-03** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-03** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 493, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1f2a3121-1281-4faa-9e44-44bfc8b2a0c0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).