The bill would prevent any armed or uniformed individual from being stationed within 100 feet of a polling place or daycare.
A majority of lawmakers on the Assembly Elections Committee approved the bill, but not before a spirited debate.
"Vice Chair Gallagher you are out of order, Vice Chair Gallagher, you are out of order!"
Democrats on the committee argue the bill’s needed to keep ICE officers away from voting locations. Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman of Palo Alto.
"The idea that this president would not send ICE agents to intimidate legitimate voters at polling places is laughable."
But the committee’s Vice Chair, Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher of Yuba City, says the law wouldn’t be enforceable and that the state doesn’t have jurisdiction over federal agents.
"We shouldn’t be like creating these sort of red zones a hundred feet from places they might not even know is a childcare center or a vote center where they can’t go and they can potentially be prosecuted."
The bill heads next to the Assembly Public Safety Committee.