A 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 states 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 ID 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 ID requirements,” said state Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, a Republican who serves as chair of Reform California.
“Its common sense,” DeMaio said. “If you need an ID 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 ID 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 â 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 Trumps agenda to sow chaos in our elections and keep eligible Californians from voting.”
ACLU of Northern California Executive Director Abdi Soltani said, “This initiative isnt about election security, its 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 states office, “California does not generally require voters to show identification at the polls.”
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: Youre 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 ID and that poll workers “may only request an ID if the voter list clearly indicates its required.”
Among the acceptable forms of ID listed by the office are official mail from a government agency, a paycheck or government check, a utility bill or a bank statement.
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