LOS ANGELES – Shirley Weber, soon to become the first Black woman to serve as California's top elections officer, will come to work with a deeply personal perspective about protecting the right to vote: Her grandfather never voted in the rural South decades ago.Weber, a state legislator and retired California State University, San Diego professor, was formally introduced by Gov.
Gavin Newsom Wednesday, a day after he announced she would be nominated to fill the post now held by Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
He's departing to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.Weber, 72, was born on a 100-acre farm in rural Hope, Arkansas, and her grandfather never got the chance to vote and died before passage.