A voter ID initiative in California, which has garnered over 1.3 million signatures, is poised for submission across all 58 counties this week. This move will coincide with five statewide rallies designed to drum up support for the measure.

“The California Voter ID Initiative offers a straightforward, bipartisan solution to rebuilding voter trust and confidence in our electoral system,” remarked Carl DeMaio, a Republican State Assemblymember, in an interview with The Californian Post.

The proposed initiative seeks to ensure that individuals casting votes have their identities verified, addressing concerns surrounding potential voter fraud.

In the 2024 California election, more than 80% of votes were cast by mail, a stark contrast to the national average of about 29%.

“States that have introduced Voter ID programs have witnessed increased voter participation, including among minority groups,” stated DeMaio, who spearheads the ballot measure and signature collection through Reform California, following the bill’s previous failure in Sacramento.

Should voters approve it in November, the measure would amend California’s Constitution to mandate photo identification for all voters in every election. It also stipulates that state election officials must verify the citizenship status of registered voters and maintain up-to-date voter rolls.

California is one of only 14 US states that do not require voter ID.

“Divisive politicians with partisan agendas will try to politicize this effort, but the fact remains that over 70 percent of voters, including a majority of Democratic voters, support the initiative. Nearly half of the 1.35 million signatures we collected came from Democrats and Independents,” he said.

Opponents of the measure argue that it would impose sweeping new restrictions on how every Californian casts their ballot and would harm communities.

“This voter ID measure is not about protecting voters; it is about importing the current federal administration’s election lies and intimidation tactics into California,” said Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California.

“It would expose voters’ sensitive personal information, create new ways to reject eligible ballots, and wrongly target voters through error-prone citizenship checks.”

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