Overview
- In his first TV interview after launching his bid, Eric Swalwell said Californians should be able to vote by phone.
- He proposed fining counties for each minute voters wait beyond 30 minutes at polling places and pledged to modernize the DMV to cut in-person visits.
- California law currently allows voting in person or by mail only, meaning phone voting would require significant changes to state rules.
- U.S. mobile-voting experiments have been limited, including West Virginia’s 2018 app for overseas voters and 21 pilots run by the Mobile Voting Project in seven states.
- The 2026 governor’s race is crowded, with Democrats Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter and Tom Steyer and Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco already in.