(a) Any person is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for two, three, or four years who, before or during an election:
(1) Tampers with, interferes with, or attempts to interfere with, the correct operation of, or willfully damages in order to prevent the use of, any voting machine, voting device, voting system, vote tabulating device, or ballot tally software program source codes.
(2) (A) Interferes or attempts to interfere with the secrecy of voting or ballot tally software program source codes.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph, “interferes or attempts to interfere with” includes knowingly, and without authorization, providing unauthorized access to, or breaking the chain of custody to, either of the following:
(i) Certified voting technology during the lifecycle of that certified voting technology.
(ii) Any finished or unfinished ballot cards.
(3) Knowingly, and without authorization, makes or has in the person’s possession credentials, passwords, or access keys to a voting machine that has been adopted and will be used in elections in this state.
(4) Willfully substitutes or attempts to substitute forged or counterfeit ballot tally software program source codes.
(b) The definitions in Section 17600 apply for purposes of this section.
(Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 605, Sec. 11. (SB 1328) Effective September 25, 2024.)