California voter ID bill makes it on the November ballot

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A sheet of voter stickers. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

OAKLAND, Calif. - A push to amend the California Constitution by requiring voters to provide photo identification has qualified for the November ballot.

The initiative, officially called the California Voter Identification and Voter List Maintenance Requirements Initiative, is a push to require voters to provide identification when casting a ballot, require election officials to verify the citizenship of registered voters, and to maintain accurate voter rolls.

The measure was authored by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, and qualified for the ballot after gathering more than one million valid signatures, surpassing the required 875,000 required for voter consideration.

"Voters will be able to restore election integrity in our state, citizenship verification, auditing voter rolls, and yes, requiring ID to vote," DeMaio said in a social media post celebrating the news the measure had qualified for the ballot. 

Not without a fight

The other side:

Critics argue the bill actually restricts registered voters from participating in elections and exposes voters to the threat of identity theft. The measure would require anyone voting by mail to write the last four digits of their social security number on the outside of their ballot envelope, which opponents say raises the potential for voters to have their identities stolen.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California on Friday issued a press release stating its intent to defeat DeMaio’s measure.

"This measure makes it harder for Americans to cast a ballot and exposes voters to identity theft," Brittany Stonesifer, the senior voting rights and redistricting program manager at California Common Cause said in the press release. "It’s unsafe to require voters to list their sensitive personal data, including their driver’s license and social security numbers, on the outside of an envelope that passes through countless hands and sits in public records for nearly two years."

If passed, the bill would require people who vote in person to show a current government ID, which critics say would exclude anyone who has changed their name after getting married or divorced, anyone who has recently moved, or whose records contain a clerical error.

"The measure would also require elections officials to do citizenship investigations of all California voters, even though eligibility is already verified during registration. If officials use databases that contain outdated or incomplete information, eligible voters are likely to be wrongly purged from the rolls through no fault of their own," the release states.

Limited evidence, large impact

By the numbers:

Despite President Donald Trump’s claims about widespread voter fraud — especially in the 2020 presidential election — there has been minimal evidence that any such activity occurred. Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which authored the highly controversial Project 2025 and champions voter ID laws, reports only 71 instances of election fraud in California over the last 33 years, which equates to roughly .0003% of the state’s 23.2 million registered voters.

California law currently requires residents to provide a California driver’s license or a State ID number, or the last four digits of their social security number, if they don’t have a California ID.

A survey by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement showed that over 20 million Americans don’t have a driver’s license. Of that number, a disproportionate number are Black or Hispanic, under the age of 29, and earn less than $50,000 a year.

A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 81% of Americans support requiring people to show government-issued identification to vote. The same study showed that most Americans also favor expanding access to voting — 76% favor making early voting available for two weeks prior to election day, 72% support making Election Day a national holiday, and 69% support allowing convicted felons to vote after serving their sentences.

Branding and support

Why you should care:

Support for the bill seems to be predicated on messaging around it. An Institute of Governmental Studies Poll released Friday showed that when voters were asked about proposed voter ID requirements on their own, 56% of those surveyed expressed support, and 39% opposed it.

"However, when voters are told on the one hand that initiative sponsor, Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio argues that it will increase election security by preventing fraud, and that Democrats counter that voter ID is part of Trump’s agenda to reduce the number of people of color voting, only 39% of voters support the measure, and 52% oppose."

The same study showed that 68% of California voters believe American democracy is under attack, and that 64% believe voter suppression is a major concern. Those respondents who believe American democracy is under attack, when asked who is responsible, stated "special interests and big money (82%), President Trump (78%), Republicans in Congress (68%) and the U.S. Supreme Court (53%).

The Californians for Voter ID ballot measure committee raised about $8.8 million last year, roughly half of which came from DeMaio’s Reform California ballot measure committee. However, Republican megadonor, billionaire, and heir to the Schlitz beer empire Richard Uihlein donated $4 million to the cause in December.