Voter ID Could Land On Blue State Ballot As Debate Intensifies

A California voter ID proposal could land on the November ballot as debate over federal election policies intensifies.

Roughly 1.3 million petition signatures were submitted for verification — well above the 875,000 threshold required for a constitutional amendment pitch to go before voters, according to CalMatters.

“This is a true, grassroots, broad-based, bipartisan movement. It’s about good government,” Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-CA) said in a recent video regarding the effort.

“In November, we will strike a blow for democracy. We will improve public trust and confidence in our elections, and the fact that that frightens the establishment politicians who have failed us, we need to keep this bipartisan movement going,” DeMaio added.

Specifically, the initiative would require photo identification for those who choose to vote in person, or “the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail.” Secondly, it would require proof of citizenship in order to be registered to vote.

It would also require the Golden State to “provide voter identification cards on request” and for election administrators to provide an annual update on the “percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.”

The amendment, if passed, would have “tens of millions” in “one-time” expenses, as well as “tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill new requirements related to elections administration,” according to the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance estimate.

Some of the key ideas in the proposal are similar to those outlined in the SAVE America Act, which President Donald Trump has been urging the Senate to pass.

“It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday.

“MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!” he wrote.

Opposition to the California-based initiative remains, including from liberal groups such as the League of Women Voters of California and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“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,” Jenny Farrell, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of California, said in a March 2 statement. “It would expose voters’ sensitive personal information, create new ways to reject eligible ballots, and wrongly target voters through error-prone citizenship checks.”