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A petition to require voter I.D. and allow only U.S. citizens to vote has gained momentum in California and surpassed the required 875,000-signature threshold to qualify for the November ballot, the group leading the effort said.
According to Reform California, a nonpartisan political activism group, organizers submitted the “California Voter ID Initiative” petition to county authorities with 1.3 million signatures. The group says the petition has garnered bipartisan support, with signatures from Californians representing all walks of life and political persuasions across all 58 of the state’s counties.
Reform California believes the measure has a solid path to passage in November, citing polls showing 71% of Californians favor the initiative. If passed, the measure would bypass the Democratic legislative supermajority and amend the state constitution to require voter I.D. when casting a ballot, require election officials to verify the citizenship of registered voters, and require the state to maintain accurate voter rolls.
“Polling overwhelmingly shows a supermajority consensus for voter I.D. requirements,” said state Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, a Republican who serves as chair of Reform California.
If passed, the California Voter ID Initiative would bypass the Democratic legislative supermajority and amend the state constitution to require voter I.D. when casting a ballot, require election officials to verify the citizenship of registered voters, and require the state to maintain accurate voter rolls. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Emily Elconin/REUTERS)
“It’s common sense,” DeMaio said. “If you need an I.D. to board an airplane or buy a pack of cigarettes or buy a case of beer, you should make it pretty easy to use an I.D. to vote in an election. This is not hard, it’s not rocket science, it’s quite simple.”
In a press release announcing the signatures would be submitted, DeMaio framed the California Voter ID Initiative as “a common-sense and bipartisan way to restore the trust and confidence all voters should have in our election system.”
He said that nearly half of the 1.35 million signatures came from Democrats and independents. Despite this, DeMaio predicted that “divisive politicians with partisan agendas will try to politicize this effort.”
“Our measure simply holds government officials accountable to maintain accurate voter lists and verify the identity of individuals casting ballots in our elections,” he went on, noting that “other states that have implemented Voter ID programs have seen an increase in participation in their elections — including an increase in minority voting.”
Opponents, however, claim the initiative is designed to suppress voters.
Julia Gomez, Senior Staff Attorney for ACLU of Southern California, said the initiative “is about advancing Trump’s agenda to sow chaos in our elections and keep eligible Californians from voting.”
ACLU of Northern California Executive Director Abdi Soltani said, “This initiative isn’t about election security, it’s about erecting barriers that will keep eligible Californians from exercising their fundamental right to vote.”
Under current California law, U.S. citizenship is required to vote. However, the state relies on registrants to simply attest that they are citizens. The state allows individuals without a California license or social security number to register by providing them with identifier codes.
According to an information sheet by the California Secretary of State’s office, “California does not generally require voters to show identification at the polls.”
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta, left, and Secretary of State Shirley Weber take questions after announcing a lawsuit to protect voter rights at a news conference at the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles on April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Though the sheet states that voters do not need to show identification “in most cases,” it notes that “you may need to show ID only if ALL the following apply: You’re voting for the first time in a federal election; You registered by mail or online, AND You did not provide your CA ID or SSN when registering.”
The secretary of state sheet says that voters are notified in advance if they will be required to show I.D. and that poll workers “may only request an ID if the voter list clearly indicates it’s required.”
Among the acceptable forms of I.D. listed by the office are official mail from a government agency, a paycheck or government check, a utility bill or a bank statement.
In 2024, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a rumored top contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, signed a bill banning local jurisdictions from requiring identification to vote. He signed the bill after a majority of voters in Huntington County, California, approved a measure allowing officials to require voters to show I.D. to participate in municipal elections.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom seen laughing at an event hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Newsom recently took heat for his criticism of the SAVE Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and would require individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, while speaking in a February episode of his podcast “This is Gavin Newsom.”
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The governor said that aspects of the SAVE Act “go well beyond I.D. … which is also part of Jim Crow, the history, and that is, when it comes to registration, you got to find your birth certificate, if you know where yours is, I have no clue where mine is or you have to have a passport and two-thirds of African Americans don’t have a passport.”
Before the initiative can be added to the ballot, county officials will have to verify the signatures and then report to the California Secretary of State’s office.
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