Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a package of 13 bills aimed at preventing interference in midterm elections, specifically targeting efforts by President Trump to restrict voting. The legislation prohibits the seizure of ballots, election records, or voting technology before an election is certified, and makes it a felony for officials to direct workers to interfere with mail ballot delivery.

Another bill bans arrests within 200 feet of polling places on Election Day, with exceptions for disrupting elections or crimes. Democrats crafted the bills to broadly combat potential Trump administration involvement, particularly in mail-in voting, which the president has repeatedly criticized. California relies heavily on mail ballots, and Trump has claimed without evidence that California allowed 278,000 noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

The Supreme Court recently blocked Trump's plan to restrict mail voting in California and other Democratic-led states. Newsom signed the bills at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, where Border Patrol agents recently appeared outside a governor's rally. Critics like Republican Sen.

Shannon Grove argue some laws could criminalize routine postal worker duties.