WATCH/EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: California Voter ID measure gets over 1 million signatures

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

An initiative imposing new voter identification requirements in California is one step closer to getting on the ballot.

Roughly 1.35 million signatures were collected during the effort to get the California Voter ID initiative on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. That’s well over the 800,000 signatures that were required. The initiative petitions will now go to the secretary of state to verify the signatures later this week.

The new initiative would require voters to show one of several forms of identification, according to supporters during a press conference on Tuesday morning.

Those who vote by mail would have to write the last four digits of their identification number on their ballot for it to be counted. The numbers would be from a form of identification of the voter’s choice.

State lawmakers who advocated for the measure said the effort has drawn bipartisan support.

“Voter ID is one of those rare opportunities, one of those rare issues, where Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between all agree,” Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said during the press conference outside the Capitol in Sacramento. “There are a lot of concerning discrepancies in our election practices.”

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and county election officials would also be required to verify voter registration using government data, according to the group backing the initiative. Under current state law, voters don’t have to show identification at the polls when they vote.

“All this does is it says that you need to be a U.S. citizen in order to register to vote and that you need to show a form of ID,” Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview before the press conference. “This is very simplistic. Thirty-six states have it. Every state that has implemented this has actually had higher voter participation.”

According to the organization Californians for Voter ID, there is widespread support for voter identification measures in the state. A poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies in January 2025 shows that 68% of Californians support voter identification requirements, and 51% said they strongly supported such measures.

Despite the data that shows deep public support for instituting voter identification requirements, some oppose the measure, telling The Center Square on Tuesday they anticipate such restrictions could unfairly disadvantage voters of color.

“We know it’s not about election integrity. It’s about voter suppression,” Brittany Stonesifer, senior program manager for voting rights and redistricting at Common Cause California, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview after the press conference.

“The number of people who don’t have current ID goes significantly up for voters of color,” she said outside the Capitol. “The studies consistently show that states with strict voter ID requirements have much lower turnout, and the gap between white voters and non-white voters goes up significantly.”

However, lawmakers of color said during the press conference on Tuesday that the effort to institute new voter identification laws is a common-sense measure that would improve the quality of California’s elections.

“When people begin to question the integrity of our elections, trust in the government starts to erode,” Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, R-Corona, told reporters. “That’s exactly why we need voter ID in California.”

Castillo, who worked at the polls during elections in her district, said she saw voters who showed up to the ballot box show her their IDs, even if they weren’t required to do so.

“They’d tell me, ‘You have to check IDs. How do you know it’s really me?’ ” Castillo said.

In response to a question from The Center Square during the press conference, DeMaio said the measure ultimately helps all Californians, not just Republicans.

“It should not help one political party or another,” DeMaio said. “Who is going to benefit from this? California voters – the people.”