California has more than twenty million registered voters. The Secretary of State serves as the state's chief elections officer and supervises state and federal elections in California. The voting rights of all Californians are protected by the Secretary of State's office, which tests and approves voting equipment, certifies election returns, maintains the statewide database of registered voters, prepares voter information materials in multiple languages, and compiles election results, among other duties. The current Secretary of State, Shirley N. Weber, PhD., is the first African American to hold this position. Dr. Weber is an educator and civil rights advocate who authored several laws as a member of the California State Legislature to increase awareness of voting rights. Some of these laws include Assembly Bill 149 of 2013 requiring county probation departments to electronically share the Secretary of State’s voting rights guide for incarcerated persons, and Assembly Bill 1344 of 2017 requiring the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to electronically share information provided by the Secretary of State regarding voting rights for persons with a criminal history.