California’s new election chief Shirley Weber had a story to tell Wednesday as she was introduced to the state’s 40 million residents, save the San Diego County constituents she represents in the Assembly: Her grandfather never voted because he lived in Arkansas during Jim Crow, before the Voting Rights Act. Her father fled Hope, Arkansas, because he was imminently in peril of being lynched. But once safely ensconced in California in the 1950s, Weber said one of the first things he did was vote because he finally had the opportunity to do so. “His not being able to go to school, not being able to vote, he instilled its importance in his eight children,” Weber, whom Governor Gavin Newsom appointed as secretary of state on Tuesday, said.