California’s voter ID initiative kicks off Democratic opposition

from Nadia LathanCalMatters

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Shortly after Steve Clark realized there was pressure to require voter ID at the polls, he began canvassing for signatures in Sacramento.

Many of the residents he met were angry, Clark said. He began volunteering for Reform California, the group behind the initiative, last year after feeling disillusioned with homelessness and the cost of living. “They want the same things: integrity back in our elections.”

Clark and his wife are among thousands of activists pushing for a Republican-backed voter ID voting initiative that supporters are working to put on the November ballot. Last week, organizers said they had submitted more than the nearly 875,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure — 1.3 million in total. As officials work to verify the signatures, opponents are mounting a campaign built around President Donald Trump and his push for a similar nationwide requirement for proof of citizenship for voters.

Voting rights groups say voter ID laws unfairly disadvantage poor people and black and Hispanic voters who are less likely to have official identification, and that creating more requirements is a way to make it harder for people who typically support Democrats to vote. They also point to the history of poll taxes, a levy that southern states used to prevent black and poor white Americans from voting after the Reconstruction era.

Recent polls have found broad support for some voter ID laws across the country and in California. 2025 survey by the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies showed a majority of Californians respondents support voter ID at polling stations — a total of 54% approve of showing proof of citizenship every time a vote is cast.

The survey data underscores the need for the initiative, supporters say.

“We structured this initiative based on what voters across the political spectrum would want,” he said Assemblyman Carl De Maioa San Diego Republican who is leading the initiative.

Under the proposal, mail-in voters would have to provide the last four digits of a government-issued ID, such as a driver’s license number. The initiative would also require the secretary of state and county election offices to verify voter registration for each ballot cast.

Currently, voters are only required to provide an ID and Social Security number when they register to vote, but not when they vote. However, most states require or recommend that voters present an ID when they vote, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislaturesalthough only 10 states are considered strict on this.

Experts agree that voting fraud is rare. A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in six battleground states in the 2020 presidential election after Trump promoted false claims that the election was stolen.

Opponents of the proposed initiative emphasized the rarity of voter fraud.

“Elections in California are now incredibly secure,” said Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California. “There is no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting that would justify adding these stringent requirements.”

Voting rights groups also argued the initiative would create unnecessary barriers and suppress voter turnout. The League of Women Voters and other organizations plan to form a campaign committee to oppose the initiative.

Labor is gearing up for a fight over electoral documents

Another potential opponent is organized labor, which is expected to campaign hard against the initiative. That announcement will likely also focus on Trump’s support for similar legislation is currently stalled in Congress, which would require voter identification in federal elections.

California Federation of Labor President Lorena Gonzalez told CalMatters that unions will argue the measure is unnecessary. “The California Republican Party in this situation is just taking Trump’s points,” she said. “I think it will become very clear that this is a Trump fantasy.”

Popular support for some new voter requirements could complicate a Democratic response to the California measure, said Mike Gatto, a former Democratic Assemblyman who authored the failed ballot initiative on homelessness. He said messages that focus on Trump rather than voter suppression are likely to play better with voters.

“There’s always going to be that discomfort from somebody, but I don’t know if that’s going to be enough in the minds of voters to counter the positive messages on this,” Gatto said.

Gonzalez said he could not say how much the unions would spend on a campaign against the initiative. “It’s hard to say because we don’t know what the initiative will look like. But again, it’s a priority for us,” Gonzalez said.

A separate union-backed ballot initiative that seeks to taxed the state’s billionaires may make it difficult for unions to prioritize a campaign against the voter ID initiative.

If voters approve it, the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office evaluates new voter identification requirements will cost state and local governments tens of millions of dollars to implement.

Supporters of the initiative began collecting signatures in September and have raised $10 million from wealthy and small donors, according to DeMaio. It is primarily funded by Julie Luckey, who chairs the initiative committee and is the mother of tech billionaire Palmer Luckey. The committee, Californians for Voter ID, has raised $8.8 million in 2025. The committee is working with DeMaio’s political organization, Reform Californiaone of the state’s largest grassroots fundraisers for conservative causes.

Last year, DeMaio unsuccessfully introduced a bill offering similar requirements to voters, but it had little chance of success in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

In general, it is much more difficult and expensive to pass an initiative than to defeat one in California. Since 1912, voters have approved only 35.5 percent of ballot initiatives, according to secretary of state.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.