What you need to know about California’s voter ID initiative

Californians would need to produce government-issued identification each time they vote under a measure that will likely appear on ballots this November.

Backers of the proposed state constitutional amendment say they’ve gathered more than 1.3 million signatures — far more than they need to qualify. Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-Valley Center, who is leading the effort, said 47% of those signatures came from Democrats or Independents.

Proponents of the initiative say it will help reinstate trust in the voting process, while critics say it risks disenfranchising thousands of voters.

How it would work

The proposal would require voters to show a government-issued ID whenever they vote in an election in California. Voters who cast ballots by mail would need to provide the last four digits of a unique number on their ID, like a driver’s license number.

State and local election officials would also be required to verify voters are U.S. citizens “using government data” and to publish annual data showing what percentage of a county’s voter rolls have had their citizenship verified.

Under current law, Californians who register to vote must state under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens and provide information to verify their identity, like a birthdate, Social Security number or a driver’s license. There’s no requirement for voters to produce identification at the polls except in the case of certain first-time voters who registered without providing proof of identity.

State analysts estimate the measure would cost tens of millions of dollars at the state and local level to implement, and would require additional annual spending ranging from tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill new requirements.

Debate over voter fraud

DeMaio and other backers pitch voter ID as a straightforward way to build trust with a wary electorate.

“It is necessary because we’ve seen declining levels of public trust and confidence in elections, we’ve seen conspiracy theories, and we’ve also seen a drop in voter participation,” DeMaio said in an interview. “The one thing that solves all of this is the commonsense voter ID reform.”

California voter turnout dipped in 2022 and 2024 compared to the previous midterm and presidential elections. At the same time, many Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, made sweeping claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election that were repeatedly rejected by federal and state courts.

DeMaio said he didn’t dispute the outcome of that vote but said he had doubts that California was conducting elections “with the highest level of integrity.”

Nonpartisan research consistently finds that instances of noncitizen registration and voting are extremely rare.

The ballot measure’s critics characterize it as a draconian solution in search of a problem.

“This initiative isn’t about election security, it’s about erecting barriers that will keep eligible Californians from exercising their fundamental right to vote as citizens,” said Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California in a news release last week.

Opponents warn the measure risks disenfranchising voters who lack IDs, who recently moved, or who lack stable housing.

A coalition of civil and voting rights groups announced last week they’ve banded together to form a campaign committee opposing the measure. The group includes both Northern and Southern California ACLUs, the California Donor Table, Disability Rights California and League of Women Voters of California.

Backers of the measure have frequently cited a May 2025 poll from the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies that found 71% of registered California voters support requiring proof of U.S. citizenship when registering voters. Some 92% say it would be easy to provide government-issued ID at the ballot box. More than two-thirds of voters expressed confidence in the overall integrity of the state’s election system.

IGS co-director Eric Schickler said the ballot measure “certainly has a chance.” But he said voters may change their mind on the issue when it’s a closely fought election topic rather than an abstract issue on a survey.

“Most voters are not paying that much attention to issues like this,” Schickler said.

SAVE America Act

Nationally, Republicans have struggled to make headway on farther-reaching legislation called the SAVE America Act.

The bill would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, a photo ID to cast a ballot and provide the Department of Homeland Security access to states’ voter rolls.

Democrats have called it an overly restrictive bill that would disenfranchise millions of people who lack documentation like a passport or birth certificate. Republicans have framed the measure as a way to shore up widespread election fraud.

The legislation, which narrowly passed the House last month, has stalled in the Senate where near-solid Democratic opposition means it has almost no chance of becoming law.

Last week, President Donald Trump again tried to pressure Congress to advance the legislation by repeating his false claims that U.S. elections are overrun with fraud.

This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM.