California will ask voters in November to approve a set of election changes aimed at strengthening voter registration and voting rules, state officials announced Friday. The proposal would require proof of citizenship when a person registers to vote and would require voters to show identification at polling places, according to the announcement.
Supporters say the measure would make California’s elections more secure and transparent. “We already show ID for everyday activities like flying, opening a bank account and picking up prescription medications. Thirty-six other states and many countries around the world already use voter ID,” state Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican from Huntington Beach, said.
Strickland added that, “Californians deserve secure, transparent elections,” as proponents argued the new requirements are a common sense way to bolster confidence in elections in a state where millions of people register to vote. California officials said the measure’s backers submitted enough petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
The ballot measure would also adjust how California handles mail-in voting. Under the proposal, voters who cast ballots by mail would have to provide the last four digits of a government-issued ID, such as a Social Security number.
Opponents, however, argued the rules would create added barriers to voting, particularly for older residents, people with disabilities, and those who do not have driver’s licenses. The debate is unfolding as election security remains a major point of contention across the country, including in Congress.
At the national level, Republicans have pushed a strict proof-of-citizenship proposal for residents to be able to vote, encouraged by Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he was not the loser of the 2020 presidential election and has long said the election was marred by widespread fraud. Multiple reviews, audits and recounts in battleground states where Trump challenged his loss confirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, and judges—including several appointed by Trump—rejected his fraud claims, according to the report.
California is among the states that do not currently require voter identification at polls or require identification to register to vote, officials said. While critics have questioned the legitimacy of California’s vote tallies at times, research cited in the report indicates voter fraud in the country is rare, and that voting by noncitizens has occurred but has typically been uncommon and attributed to mistakes rather than intentional efforts to sway elections.
Most California residents vote by mail, and officials and supporters of the change framed the proposal as part of the state’s ongoing push for accuracy and counting every vote in an election year in which Californians will pick the next governor and control of Congress is at stake.