Can California Elections Be Saved? Voter ID Qualifies for the Ballot

Californians will get a chance to vote for more secure elections this November after a voter identification and citizenship verification initiative qualified for the ballot.

Following a successful signature-gathering campaign led by Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, the ballot question, if approved, would require government-issued identification for in-person voting. Californians voting by mail would need to provide the last four digits of a unique government-issued identifying number with their mail-in ballot.

A new UC Berkeley poll of nearly 6,000 registered California voters found that 56% of respondents support showing ID to vote.

“If Californians lose confidence in the integrity of our elections, we are at risk of losing faith in the foundation that upholds our system of government,” U.S Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., told The Daily Signal in an email.

“When the majority of the House of Representatives is decided by just a few seats, like it currently is, just a few elections can shift the balance of power in Congress. That’s why I have been so motivated to support this effort, raise the money necessary to get us to this point, and fight to secure our elections with voter ID,” he added.

Calvert shared examples of how close previous California elections have been, underscoring the need for election security.

“It doesn’t take a large number of fraudulent votes to swing the results of an election. Last election, Republican Rep. John Duarte was defeated by just 187 votes; Republican Rep. Michelle Steel was defeated by 653 votes. I don’t know if the outcome of these elections would have changed if we had voter ID, but I know we’d have greater confidence in the result if we had better election integrity, including voter ID.”

According to The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, California ranks second worst out of all states.

Their scoring is based on Californians’ ability to not have their ballot lost, stolen, or altered, and whether a legitimate vote could be negated by an “illegitimate voter.”

Presently, identification is not required to vote in California, with the exception of same-day registration or conditional voting.

According to VoterRiders.com, in order to register for voting, individuals “can use any unexpired photo ID or a non-photo document with your name and address.”

This includes basic forms of identification that noncitizens can access, such as a driver’s license, state ID, student ID, or vehicle registration. Public housing or assistance cards, utility bills, bank statements, government checks, paychecks, or other government documents dated after November 2022 also qualify.

Stefani Buhajla, a pollster with more than 15 years of experience in public policy and political communications, says voter ID will make voting easier and more secure for Californians.

“This doesn’t just apply to illegal immigrants. You could very well be in the country legally to work on a visa or be a legal resident who’s authorized to be here, but that doesn’t mean you should vote, because you’re not a citizen,” she said. “But you can get all kinds of forms of ID if you fall into that ‘legal’ category, like a driver’s license.”

Buhajla said Democrats want to count anybody who is residing in this country, “whether they’re here legally or not, so that they can pack their congressional districts for apportionment, so they can get more seats assigned to their states.”

“This is especially important in California, where you have mass immigration,” she added. “Under the Biden administration’s open borders, where anybody could come in, they did. So, you end up where the congressional districts get flooded with people who are not citizens of this country.”

While some believe voter ID is a way for Republicans to make voting harder for the average person, Buhajla said voter ID would eliminate confusion related to voting in local elections, including finding the right precinct.

“At least if you’ve got your driver’s license there with you, they can say, ‘No, your address doesn’t match your voter registration. You need to go here to vote.’”

She added: “It doesn’t just protect the system from bad actors who want to do ballot stuffing; It also protects voters so that they don’t have to cast a provisional ballot or spend all day trying to figure out where they should be voting.”