An initiative requiring voters to show ID and prove citizenship at the ballot box has qualified for California’s November 2026 election, state officials confirmed late last week.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber verified the campaign had submitted more than 962,000 valid signatures to place the measure on the statewide ballot.
The California Voter ID Initiative would amend the state constitution to require photo identification when casting a ballot. It would also direct election officials to verify the citizenship status of registered voters before they can participate in elections.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, whose group Reform California spearheaded the effort, said the campaign gathered approximately 1.35 million total signatures. He said nearly half came from registered Democrats and independents.
“The California Voter ID Initiative is a common-sense and bipartisan way to restore the trust and confidence all voters should have in our election system,” DeMaio said in a statement Friday. He added, “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 Democrat voters, support the initiative, and nearly half of the 1.35 million signatures we collected to put this common-sense reform on the ballot came from Democrats and Independents.”
Opponents have already mobilized against the measure. The ACLU of Northern California said the initiative targets eligible voters, not election fraud.
“This initiative isn’t about election security, it’s about erecting barriers that will keep eligible Californians from exercising their fundamental right to vote as citizens,” said Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California.
Left-wing groups moved earlier this year to block the effort from reaching the ballot. Those efforts failed.
Polling has consistently shown majority support for voter ID requirements across the country, including among minority and Democratic-leaning voters. California is one of the few remaining states without any form of voter ID requirement.
If passed in November, the measure would make California the most populous state to adopt a voter ID law tied directly to citizenship verification.
