Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government-Issued Identification
Proposition 39 would require identification verification for every in-person and mail ballot.
The measure would change how California voters establish their identity when casting ballots and add citizenship-verification, reporting, and audit duties for election officials.
What it does
- Requires in-person voters to present government-issued identification each time they vote.
- Requires mail voters to provide the last four digits of the government-issued identification number designated in their voter-registration record.
- Requires election officials to verify a voter’s identity and confirm the voter cast only one ballot before counting a regular or provisional ballot.
- Requires state and county election officials to use best efforts and government data to verify citizenship attestations, and to annually report the share of each county’s voter rolls whose citizenship has been verified.
- Requires the state to provide a voter ID card at no charge to an eligible voter who requests one.
- Requires the State Auditor to audit state and county compliance in every odd-numbered year and publish findings and recommendations.
Who it affects
- Registered voters casting ballots in person or by mail.
- Eligible voters who request a state-issued voter ID card.
- State and county election officials and the State Auditor.
Context
California currently generally uses a voter’s signature to identify them when voting in person or by mail, with election officials verifying signatures on mail-ballot envelopes. Registration currently may use a driver’s license number, state identification number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number, while some voters may be asked for identification when first voting.
A yes vote means
A yes vote would require government-issued identification for in-person voting and matching designated identification-number digits for mail voting, while adding election-official citizenship-verification, reporting, and audit requirements.
A no vote means
A no vote would keep California’s current voter-identification procedures and would not create these new citizenship-verification, reporting, voter-ID-card, or audit requirements.
Fiscal effect
The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates:
- State and local government costs of between tens of millions of dollars and low hundreds of millions of dollars each year to implement new voting requirements. Costs depend on future decisions by the Legislature, state departments, local governments, and voters.