republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20252026/sb-398.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Election crimes: payment based on voting or voter registration.	Under existing law, it is a crime for a person to receive money or other valuable consideration to assist another to register to vote by receiving the completed affidavit of registration if the person fails to sign the affidavit and include certain other information, including the name and telephone number of the person, company, or organization, if any, that has agreed to pay the money or other valuable consideration.	us/states/ca	California Legislature	20252026	SB 398	California SB 398 (20252026)	bill	Electioncrimes paymentbasedonvotingorvoterregistration	enacted	Umberg	6	29	10	2025-02-14	2025-10-02	openstates	ocd-bill/e76110d5-cc14-4557-ae05-32b6c5c5ced9	http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB398	ca91110cac15252fa753dd00de68ab0464b097702b8aecd21cf2381c03d316a2	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-ca

California SB 398 (20252026) — Election crimes: payment based on voting or voter registration.

Under existing law, it is a crime for a person to receive money or other valuable consideration to assist another to register to vote by receiving the completed affidavit of registration if the person fails to sign the affidavit and include certain other information, including the name and telephone number of the person, company, or organization, if any, that has agreed to pay the money or other valuable consideration.

Version chain

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

1. 02/14/25 - Introduced (filed) — source
2. 04/21/25 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
3. 07/03/25 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
4. 10/02/25 - Chaptered (committee substitute) — source
5. SB398 (committee substitute) — source
6. 09/12/25 - Enrolled (enrolled) — source

Votes

• 3rd Reading SB398 Umberg et al. — 38–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Public Safety] — 7–0 (pass) · lower
• Do pass — 6–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 6–0 (pass) · upper
• Placed on suspense file — 7–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Public Safety] — 5–0 (pass) · upper
• SB 398 Umberg Senate Third Reading By Berman — 79–0 (pass) · lower
• Unfinished Business SB398 Umberg et al. Concurrence — 40–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass. — 15–0 (pass) · lower
• Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 9–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• Umberg — primary (person)
• Becker — coauthor (person)
• Lee — coauthor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2025-02-14 Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. introduction, reading-1
• 2025-02-18 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 17.
• 2025-02-26 Referred to Coms. on E. & C.A. and PUB. S. referral-committee
• 2025-03-20 Set for hearing April 1.
• 2025-04-01 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 609.) (April 1). Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee
• 2025-04-09 Set for hearing April 22.
• 2025-04-21 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
• 2025-04-23 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 841.) (April 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee
• 2025-04-25 Set for hearing May 5.
• 2025-05-05 May 5 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
• 2025-05-16 Set for hearing May 23.
• 2025-05-23 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 1199.) (May 23). committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-05-23 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
• 2025-05-29 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 1335.) Ordered to the Assembly. passage, reading-1, reading-3
• 2025-05-29 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. reading-1
• 2025-06-05 Referred to Coms. on ELECTIONS and PUB. S. referral-committee
• 2025-07-02 From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 2). amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-07-03 Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
• 2025-07-16 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee
• 2025-08-20 August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
• 2025-08-29 Coauthors revised.
• 2025-08-29 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (August 29). committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-09-02 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
• 2025-09-08 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 2993.) Ordered to the Senate. passage, reading-1, reading-3
• 2025-09-08 In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
• 2025-09-10 Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2829.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-09-17 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
• 2025-10-02 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
• 2025-10-02 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 246, Statutes of 2025. became-law

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/e76110d5-cc14-4557-ae05-32b6c5c5ced9. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).