California Secretary of State Shirley Weber knows all too well how the race for voting rights is an intergenerational marathon.

She’s the proud daughter of sharecroppers and is the first Black person to hold the position in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated her at the end of 2020.

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.

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.

“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.”

“California has probably the safest elections of any state in the nation…we have a lot of things in place. We check, we re-check, we verify…” California Secretary of State @DrShirleyWeber joins #GMA3 to offer insight into the governor’s recall election....

Foiled by a key tactic of the Jim Crow era, the Senate has officially missed a historic opportunity to combat the most aggressive attacks on voting rights since that time. We must end the legislative filibuster in the United States Senate.

A conversation with Dr. Shirley Weber, California’s secretary of state, who was a leader in starting the reparations process.

Those of us lucky enough to be elections officers have a solemn responsibility: to root out toxic mistrust, ensure transparency and continue to expand access to the ballot.

Shirley Weber made history when she was sworn in as California’s first Black Secretary of State last week.