Proposition 39, the California Voter ID Initiative, calls for additional identification and U.S. citizenship verification requirements when voting.
When a person registers to vote in California currently, they must attest under perjury that they are a U.S. citizen and verify their identity by providing information such as their birthdate, a driver’s license number or Social Security number.
Voters typically don’t have to show ID when casting their ballots in person — although the secretary of state advises that voters may need to do so if they’re voting for the first time after they registered to vote by mail and did not provide their driver’s license number or last four digits of their Social Security number on their registration form.
But if Proposition 39 passes, requiring ID would become standard protocol.
Under this proposal, all voters would also have to present a government-issued ID when voting in person or provide the last four digits of a government-issued ID number when voting by mail. An individual could request, at no cost, a state-issued voter ID card for this purpose.
In addition, the measure would require election officials to annually report the percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship has been verified.
Proposition 39 is estimated to cost state and local governments tens of millions of dollars in one-time expenses to implement. In addition, the increased annual costs to state and local governments to administer elections could range from tens of millions of dollars to low hundreds of millions, according to the legislative analyst’s office and the director of finance.
Proponents of the measure include Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego; state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach; and businessman Don DiCostanzo of Californians for Voter ID.
A coalition of civil or voting rights groups and community organizations opposes the measure. They include the American Civil Liberties Union (both the Northern and Southern California chapters), League of Women Voters of California, California Common Cause, Asian Law Caucus and Disability Rights California.
Critics of voter ID say it could hinder communities that already face obstacles to voting and could potentially expose sensitive information if people have to write their ID numbers on their mailed ballots.