Portrait of Dr. Shirley Weber outdoors
Portrait of Dr. Shirley Weber outdoors

In the Media

[OC Register] For Secretary of State Shirley Weber, access to voting was a lesson learned from a young age

[OC Register] For Secretary of State Shirley Weber, access to voting was a lesson learned from a young age

Every so often, Shirley Weber would come home from school and bypass the front door of her Los Angeles home.

She’d take the side yard and enter in the backdoor, careful not to disrupt those gathered in her living room. It was Election Day, and people were voting at 351 West 45th St.

The importance of voting — and access to it — was instilled in Weber, California’s secretary of state, from a young age.

[CNN] If voters don’t stop it, election deniers could kill American democracy

As the chief election officers in California and Michigan, we are charged with ensuring and protecting the votes of over 30 million Americans — roughly 20% of the total registered voters in our country. We work to make sure that every eligible citizen is registered, has the information they need to vote, has their vote counted correctly and can have rightly placed faith in a complex electoral process — one made more onerous by the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.

[Democracy Docket] Congress Should Learn From the Golden State

[Democracy Docket] Congress Should Learn From the Golden State

I am lucky to be the chief elections officer for a state whose governor and legislature support equal access to the ballot. Every registered voter in California received a mail-in ballot in September’s recall election as they had the previous November, no application or reason required. Despite mailing over 22 million ballots, there were no major errors regarding where, or to whom, the ballots were sent. Due to its success, California will now permanently mail voters ballots ahead of every election.

[The Cut] Imagine If We Took Personal Ambition Out of Politics

[The Cut] Imagine If We Took Personal Ambition Out of Politics

After serving two terms on the San Diego Board of Education and four representing California’s 79th Assembly District, Weber is now the third most powerful person in the state. She spoke with the Cut about why she had to be recruited to run for office, her greatest professional heartbreak, and how she’s opening the door for the next generation of Black women leaders.

[Politico] California elections chief wants recall overhaul, possibly as soon as 2022

[Politico] California elections chief wants recall overhaul, possibly as soon as 2022

“I’m probably the number one person who says we need to look at this process,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber told POLITICO in an interview, calling California an “outlier” in matters like the relatively low threshold to qualify a recall. “The process we have is old, it is difficult to implement, it is expensive, and it’s probably not very fair to everyone.”