The organization Reform California announced on March 2 that it was submitting over 1.3 million signatures to county election officials for verification of an initiative that would require voter identification and a constitutional requirement for state and county election officials to verify citizenship of registered voters.
The initiative would add a new section to the California Constitution requiring government-issued identification to vote in person or the last 4 digits of a unique government-issued identifying number for mail-in ballots. The amendment would require the state to provide upon request and at no charge a voter ID card for use in casting a ballot. The initiative would also require the secretary of state and county election officials to maintain accurate voter registration lists, including verifying citizenship attestations and reporting the percentage of voter rolls that have been citizenship-verified.
The amendment would allow citizens to seek judicial review and remedy of the state's or any county's compliance with the amendment. The amendment would also require the state auditor to audit state and county compliance, publicly report its findings, and make recommendations to improve the integrity of elections every odd-numbered year.
Currently, California's constitution requires that voters be U.S. citizens, California residents, 18 years old on Election Day, not serving a state or federal prison term for a felony conviction, and not found mentally incompetent to vote by a court. When registering to vote, proof of citizenship is not required. Individuals who become U.S. citizens less than 15 days before an election must bring proof of citizenship to their county elections office to register to vote in that election. An individual applying to register to vote must attest that they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.
Asm. Carl DeMaio (R-75), the chairman of Reform California, said, “We’re creating the legal obligation that in California, when we do voting, we want our election officers to actually give a damn about whether someone’s a citizen. That’s what we’re asking. That’s why voters support this, because it’s not a burden on the voter. It really is a burden on the election officers to do their job.”
The initiative received endorsements from U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-41), State Sen. Tony Strickland (R-36), State Rep. Bilal Essayli (R-63), State Rep. Alexandra Macedo (R-33), and State Rep. David Tangipa (R-8).
ACLU of Northern and Southern California, Asian Law Caucus, California Common Cause, California Donor Table, Disability Rights California, and League of Women Voters of California announced their formation of an opposition coalition to the initiative. Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California, said, "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. It would expose voters' sensitive personal information, create new ways to reject eligible ballots, and wrongly target voters through error-prone citizenship checks."
Between 2004 and 2025, voters in 11 states decided on 12 ballot measures related to voter identification requirements. Voters approved nine of these measures and rejected three. Maine and Wisconsin were the last states to vote on such measures in 2025. Maine voters defeated an initiative that would have required voter photo identification and made changes to absentee voting and ballot drop box rules. Wisconsin voters approved a legislatively referred amendment to require a valid photo ID to vote.
In California, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is 874,641, which is 8% of the votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election.
Reform California also submitted another 1.3 million signatures on Feb. 25 for a second initiative that would require a two-thirds vote by the electorate to enact special local taxes proposed by local governments and successful citizen initiative campaigns. The initiative would also prohibit cities from imposing real estate transfer taxes above the 0.11% cap set by Proposition 13 (1978).
The two initiatives are the first to submit more signatures than required for the 2026 ballot. For the 2026 cycle, 45 ballot initiatives were filed for circulation in California as of March 2. Between 2010 and 2024, the average number of initiatives filed each cycle was 77 with an average of nine certified, but the past four cycles have been below both averages.
The state legislature referred three measures to the November ballot in California that would:
- Allow the state and local governments to create programs that provide candidates with public funds under spending limits and eligibility rules;
- Eliminate the successor election when a state officer is recalled, thereby leaving the office vacant until it is filled according to state law; and
- Require initiatives that change vote thresholds to supermajority votes, such as the one proposed by Reform California, to pass by the same vote requirement as is proposed.
The deadline to qualify a ballot initiative for the 2026 ballot in California is June 25.
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