No on Proposition 39
California Voter ID Initiative
What is it?
Prop 39 requires voters to show valid government-issued ID when voting in person. Vote-by-mail voters instead write the last four digits of their ID number on the ballot envelope. The state must issue a free voter ID card to any eligible voter on request.
The measure defines government-issued identification as "documentation that allows conclusive verification of the voter's identity." It does not say which documents qualify, such as a driver's license, state ID card, or passport.
Citizenship checks
The state and counties must check voter rolls for citizenship against government data and report each year on how much of each county's roll has been verified.
Current law
Today, California asks for a driver's license number, state ID number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number when you register to vote, though you can register without one and the county assigns you a number instead. Voters are not asked to show ID at the polls. The exception: if you registered by mail and your number could not be verified, you may be asked for identification the first time you vote, and a broad list of documents qualifies, including a utility bill or bank statement.
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Fiscal impacts
The measure names no dollar amount. The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates one-time state and local costs in the tens of millions of dollars to prepare, and ongoing annual costs ranging from the tens of millions to the low hundreds of millions of dollars. The range is wide because key decisions are left open, including which agency issues the free voter ID cards and how citizenship verification systems get built. The State Auditor would also audit state and county compliance every other year.
Why is this on the ballot?
This is a citizen initiative. Assemblymember Carl DeMaio and State Senator Tony Strickland filed it with the Attorney General on July 16, 2025, and its backers gathered voter signatures to qualify it for the November 3, 2026 ballot.
According to Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution, amendments to the California Constitution may be introduced by collecting signatures (8% of the votes cast in the most recent Governor's race). The amendment must then be approved by voters with a simple majority of 50% + 1.
- Placed on ballot by: Voter signature initiative
- Proponents of record: State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, State Senator Tony Strickland, and business owner Don DiCostanzo, backed by Reform California and the committee Californians for Voter ID
Why vote No?
In-person impersonation, the only fraud a photo ID check can stop, is about the rarest event in American elections: a Brennan Center review of the Heritage Foundation's database of proven fraud cases found just 10 cases across billions of votes.
Prop 39 doesn't change anything about how California verifies a voter is a citizen. The state already verifies your identity against DMV and Social Security records when you register to vote.
The real change lands on the four out of five Californians who vote by mail. Prop 39 makes you write four digits of an ID number on your return envelope, and they must match the ID number sitting in your registration file. Forget which number you registered with, or transpose a digit, and your valid ballot has a brand-new way to get rejected, on top of the signature check that already works.
For this, the Legislative Analyst's Office estimates it will cost in the tens of millions to low hundreds of millions of dollars per year, all to chase a non-existent problem, all while making your own ballot easier to reject. Vote no.