Should CA Require Identification To Vote? Patch Readers Weigh In

CALIFORNIA — If a new state initiative becomes law, it would significantly toughen rules around voter registration and casting a vote in the Golden State — especially for those living in the country without documentation.

The initiative would would mandate Californians to present an official identification card to vote in person, require mail-in voters to provide a government-issued ID card and signature matching their voter file.

The mandate would also require Californians to provide a full Social Security number when registering to vote or to verify existing registrations, according to California's Secretary of State's Office.

In a recent non-scientific poll, the majority of 5,525 respondents were in favor of tightening rules around voting in California.

We asked readers whether the state should require voters to show a government issued identification card to vote-in-person. More than 75 percent of respondents said "yes," 21.4 percent said "no" and 3.3 percent said they were unsure.

We also asked readers whether the state should require a social security number to register to vote, more than 61.6 percent said "yes," 31.5 percent said "no" and 7 percent said they were unsure.

If enacted, it would also mandate all of the state's 58 counties to report in-person voting wait times after each election. The new initiative was cleared to begin collecting petition signatures on Nov. 19, Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced.

Currently, Californians are not required to show identification to a polling place worker before casting a ballot in "most cases," according to the state.

We asked respondents whether they thought this was fair: 71.2 percent said "no," 24 percent said "yes" and 4.8 percent said "not sure."

Some responders also shared their thoughts in a short answer form:

An obvious Republican attempt to restrict voting the the "right people", shows the weakness of the initiative process.

They should absolutely require valid ID proving US citizenship and residence in CA in order to vote. In fact, mail-in ballots should be limited to situations where the person is physically unable to vote in person as testified by a doctor's letter, or if out of the state.

Of course ID should be presented to prove you’re who you say you are to prevent fraud!

ID should be required to vote. It is required to fly. To go to Disneyland. To go to a doctor. Why wouldn't it be required to vote?

This is just pandering to Trumpians. There is no problem to fix. Why put these little stumbling blocks to peoples constitutional right to vote?

I can't believe that this is even an issue. Of course people should show ID. We have to show ID now to get into the movie theater or businesses in LA County, but you don't want to have people show ID to vote?!?

If you have to show ID to purchase alcohol or drive a vehicle, I see no problem showing ID while casting a vote.

The mostly GOP-backed initiative comes 13 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require voters to show a photo ID to vote if they mandated it. To date, 11 states — most of which have Republican legislatures — have strict voter ID laws, while another 24 have looser requirements around asking for identification, the National Conference of State Legislature reported.

Proponents of similar initiatives argue that requiring identification would help mitigate election fraud.

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's defeat and the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2020, Republican state legislatures across the nation have driven a tsunami of voter restriction laws, requiring voter ID, restricting mail-in voting and reducing polling places.

In California, where Democrats hold a supermajority in the state Legislature, voter restriction measures would have little chance of making it on the ballot except through a grassroots signature-gathering effort. There has been no evidence of widespread fraud or other wrongdoing with the 2020 election, and those claims have been rejected by judges, election officials and Trump's own attorney general.

Nevertheless, two-thirds of Republicans said Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted two weeks after Biden's inauguration. Election officials said it was important to remind the public that there were no widespread problems with the 2020 election, which was dubbed the "most secure" in U.S. history by a group of federal, state and local election officials.

Patch editor Paige Austin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.