CA Voter ID Proposal Appears Headed For November 2026 Ballot

Proponents of a statewide proposal requiring California voters to provide identification and U.S. citizenship verification before they can participate in elections turned in enough petition signatures to likely qualify the initiative for the November 2026 ballot.

The initiative's proponents announced this month that they are submitting more than 1.3 million signatures to election officials to qualify the California Voter ID Initiative for this year's ballot.

The Reform California-backed initiative needs just 874,641 valid signatures to qualify. Proponents have until March 18 to meet the circulation deadline.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego), who serves as the chair of Reform California, said Sunday that submission rallies are being held statewide this week, including in Riverside County, where signatures from over 100,000 Riverside County voters were gathered.

The GOP-led petition with the signatures was received Monday morning at the front office of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. Among those on hand to deliver it were DeMaio, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and state Sen. Tony Strickland, R- Huntington Beach.

Signature-gathering for the initiative was grassroots. There were no big-money interests willing to back the effort, according to Reform California.

The proposal's proponents acknowledge they still have a big hurdle ahead. About 67 percent of the 1.3 million signatures gathered statewide must be deemed valid by election officials in order for the initiative to go before California voters in November. Then the hard part will be organizing and funding the campaign to pass the measure despite strong opposition.

"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.

California’s elections are already secure, opponents of the initiative argue.

Under current law, Californians are not required to show or provide ID when casting a ballot in person or by mail. Instead, they are required to provide ID when registering to vote and must swear under penalty of perjury, a felony, that they are eligible to vote and are U.S. citizens.

To register to vote, Californians must provide their driver’s license number or state identification card number and the last four digits of their Social Security number, along with other information. The onus is on the state to validate the information.

A driver’s license, U.S. passport, and state ID cards are acceptable. If none of those are available, other forms of ID may be acceptable.

Voters’ signatures are verified by election officials on every mail ballot.

Instead of ensuring election integrity, opponents of the state's Voter ID initiative claim the proposal is part of a coordinated national strategy, advanced by President Donald Trump and his allies to make voting harder.

Trump has long touted baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He's also falsely asserted that undocumented immigrants are swaying elections with illegal votes.

Voter impersonation and noncitizen voting are rare nationally and in the Golden State. The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation found just 71 instances of voter fraud in California spanning a period of more than 40 years.

“This voter ID measure is not about protecting voters; it is about importing the current federal administration’s election lies and intimidation tactics into California,” said Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California. “It would expose voters’ sensitive personal information, create new ways to reject eligible ballots, and wrongly target voters through error-prone citizenship checks.”

In addition to requiring identification and proof of citizenship, the initiative, if passed, would add requirements for those who vote by mail, including writing the last four digits of a government-issued ID number on the outside of the mail ballot envelope.

The digits could expose millions of voters to identity theft, opponents argue. Making a mistake with a digit or forgetting the ID altogether could cause someone’s ballot to be disqualified.

The voter ID measure would also require currently registered voters to have their citizenship reverified using government databases.

Name changes, frequent moves, or housing instability could create additional ID barriers for eligible voters.

"This measure wouldn’t just hurt voters who are already underrepresented — it would make voting harder for the vast majority of Californians who cast their ballots by mail,” said Brittany Stonesifer, senior voting rights & redistricting program manager for California Common Cause. “As our elections are under threat at the federal level, California must protect access to the ballot box, not block it off.”

Partisan divide over whether voters must provide proof of U.S. citizenship has consumed Washington, D.C. Last month, House Republicans passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which requires voters to provide proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting. The act has yet to pass the Senate.

Examples of proof of citizenship under the SAVE Act include a birth certificate, a U.S. passport, a consular report of Birth Abroad, a certificate of citizenship, or a naturalization certificate.

Although at least one of these documents is, in theory, available to U.S. citizens, not all voters have them readily available. According to the think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, 9% of all eligible voters do not have, or do not have easy access to, documentary proof of citizenship; 52% of registered voters do not have an unexpired passport with their current legal name; and 11% of registered voters do not have access to their birth certificate.

Closer to home, a voter ID law was tested. Courts struck down the city of Huntington Beach's voter identification policy. California Attorney General Rob Bonta welcomed the California Supreme Court's January decision on the matter.

“Huntington Beach’s leaders have been parroting the Trump Administration’s talking points by questioning the integrity of our elections," Bonta said. "In court, the city’s allegations were resoundingly rejected. I remain fully committed to protecting the right to vote from baseless attacks.”