Supporters of a ballot initiative that changes California’s voter ID rules have accused the California Attorney General Rob Bonta of rigging the election.
The effort in question, Proposition 39, would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote. Bonta’s office originally provided a title and language for the effort that said it “establishes additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements.” An updated title now says the measure “prohibits citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification,” Fox 40 reports.
Republican California Assemblymember and Reform California Chairman Carl DeMaio said the ballot title was changed to a “dishonest” title.
“California politicians know that a super-majority of California voters support Prop 39’s bipartisan solution for Voter ID — so now they are corruptly trying to rig the election by putting a biased and dishonest title on this common-sense measure,” said DeMaio, adding, “When Rob Bonta didn’t think we could get the signatures on Prop 39, he provided a relatively fair ballot title — but now that the citizens have forced Prop 39 on the ballot, he decides at the last minute to corruptly try to rig the election against Prop 39 by changing the ballot title to a biased and dishonest one.”
Responding to the accusation that he manipulated the measure, Bonta’s office told the New York Post that the “ballot title and summary may differ from the legislative, circulating, or other title and summary of the measure.”
“It is not uncommon for the ballot title and summary to change from the circulating version — and this year, all nine voter-proposed initiatives had changes,” his office said. “Our office properly exercised its discretion to provide further clarity to voters about Prop 39’s chief purpose and points for the ballot stage.”
