California Voters Will Decide a Voter-ID Amendment on Nov. 3

Proposition 39 would require a government ID in person and the last four digits of a designated ID number on a mail ballot. Sponsors say 36 states already do some version of this. The state Democratic Party calls it a Trump-backed barrier.

Tommy Flynn, October 5, 2026

California voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to amend the state constitution so that a ballot does not count unless the voter presents government-issued identification or, by mail, writes the last four digits of a designated ID number on the envelope.

Proposition 39 qualified after supporters submitted about 1.02 million signatures, above the 874,641 required. The secretary of state’s voter guide says in-person voters would have to show a government ID. Mail voters would have to mark which number they are using, a driver’s license or a Social Security number, and write the last four digits of that number. A mismatch would leave the ballot uncounted. Elections officials would have to report each year the percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they verified. The state would have to provide a free voter-identification card to any eligible voter who asks for one.

If it passes, California would become the 37th state with a voter-ID requirement at the polls and the 10th to adopt one by ballot measure, according to the measure’s background file. Nevada, North Carolina, and Oklahoma also have voter-ID questions on their November ballots. California’s constitution already limits voting to citizens. Proof of citizenship is not required unless the voter became a citizen fewer than 15 days before the election.

Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Lancaster Republican, told The Center Square on Thursday that the measure is “a practical way to update how we run elections in California.” Requiring a standard government ID “is not moving backward,” she said. “It’s a step toward a more modern and open system.” She said the free card means no eligible voter is left without a document.

Sen. Tony Strickland, a Huntington Beach Republican and an early backer, has said 36 other states already use ID and that states with the requirement saw higher turnout, not lower. Sen. Steven Choi, an Irvine Republican and vice chair of the Senate elections committee, wrote that he supports putting the question to voters and that the largest effect would be confidence. “With that confidence, we will likely see increased voter participation,” Choi said.

Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, took the other side in an email to The Center Square. “Prop 39 is a Trump-backed attack on Californians’ fundamental right to vote,” he said. He said it would make voting harder, put personal information at risk, cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, and delay results. He said state Democrats are united against it. The California Republican Party declined to comment for the Center Square story. Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican and another early backer, was not available Thursday.

The legislative analyst’s summary says identity today is established with a signature. A yes vote adds an identification check each time a ballot is cast. A no vote leaves the signature rule in place. The measure does not federalize California elections. It would sit beside the fight in Congress over the SAVE Act and beside last week’s ruling in Miami, where a Biden-appointed judge held that the federal criminal ban on noncitizen voting exceeds Congress’s power in one defendant’s case. That order binds one case. Proposition 39 would bind California if voters approve it.