Biography
As California’s 30th Secretary of State, Debra Bowen works every day to build up election integrity and break down government barriers.
On her watch as the chief elections officer for the largest state in the nation, Debra’s goals are to ensure that voting systems are secure, accurate, and accessible, and that voters have confidence in the final election results because every ballot is counted exactly as it was cast.
After taking office in 2007, Debra ordered a groundbreaking top-to-bottom review of California’s voting systems. When this review by dozens of independent experts revealed significant flaws in every voting system examined, Debra shored up election security and post-election audits in an unprecedented way. She specified detailed conditions for use of each type of voting system and imposed strict limitations on the use of direct recording electronic (DRE) machines.
For this trailblazing leadership in strengthening democracy, Debra was recognized nationally with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, one of the highest global honors for public servants who choose principles over partisanship.
As Secretary of State, Debra has also:
- Streamlined operations and cut her agency’s budget by more than 20%
- Enhanced public access by expanding website services and establishing social media feeds of Secretary of State news and directives
- Fought for increased accountability of private-sector election contractors
- Won $3.25 million for Californians in a lawsuit against a voting system vendor
- Strengthened election fraud prevention efforts
- Launched a complete rebuild of the statewide voter registration database
- Expanded voter education with creative new and traditional methods
Prior to being elected Secretary of State, Debra served six years in the State Assembly (1992-1998) and eight years in the State Senate (1998-2006). She authored numerous laws aimed at building public confidence in elections, including measures to require that post-election audits use the paper records produced by DRE voting machines, be conducted in public, and include vote-by-mail ballots along with the ballots cast at polling places.
A longtime privacy rights and government transparency advocate, Debra authored the first-in-the-world law that put legislative information online in 1993, giving Californians immediate access to information about state lawmakers’ bills, voting records, and more. In 1995, Debra was the first California legislator to voluntarily put her campaign finance reports online.
Debra was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Michigan State University. After earning her law degree at the University of Virginia, she practiced corporate, tax and ERISA law at Winston & Strawn in Chicago and in Washington, D.C.; at the Los Angeles office of Wall Street firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed; and as a sole practitioner in Los Angeles. After volunteering her legal services as a member of the Heal the Bay Legal Committee, Debra expanded her practice to environmental and land-use cases.
Debra is married to Mark Nechodom, a research scientist and Director of Climate Science Policy with the U.S. Forest Service.