Proposition 39 is BAD for California Voters
Californians ALREADY provide ID when they register to vote, and their identification is securely verified using official State records.
Therefore, Vote NO on Prop. 39
Proposition 39 will make voters re-verify every time they vote, and require voters to place sensitive information on the OUTSIDE of their ballot envelopes, which can cause them to have their identities stolen.
Read the ‘No on Prop 39’ FACT SHEET
Read the California League of Women Voters full analysis on ‘NO on Prop 39’
Proposition 39 is a Trump-backed attack on every Californian citizen’s right to vote.
If passed, Prop 39 would impose unnecessary and burdensome barriers for citizens to cast their vote:
- Voters casting their ballot in-person would be restricted from doing so unless they hand over their government-issued ID.
- Voting by mail would require that voters write the last four digits of their Social Security number or other government-issued identification number on the outside of their mail ballot.
- Citizens who don’t supply this personal identification information would be prohibited from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
How the State of California Already Protects Voter ID
Californians ALREADY must provide ID when they register.
To register to vote, you must provide:
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- A California Driver’s License or state ID number, or
- The last four digits of your Social Security Number (SSN) (if you do not have a CA ID).
- If you don’t have either, you can still register. You’ll be assigned a unique identifier to validate your registration.
All numbers are securely verified:
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- CA ID numbers are matched with DMV records.
- SSNs are matched with Social Security Administration records.
- Unique identifiers are verified by election officials.
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Do I need to show ID to vote In California?
In most cases, NO. California does not generally require voters to show identification at the polls. You may need to show ID if ALL of the following apply:
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- You’re voting for the first time in a federal election.
- You registered by mail or online, and
- You did not provide your CA ID or SSN when registering.
California League of Women Voters text on NO on Prop 39 — Complete Text
Prop 39 is a partisan power grab to further President Trump’s voter suppression efforts. It is based on lies about our elections. Prop 39 is intended to make it harder to vote and easier for politicians to decide which voters count. Right-wing billionaires spent millions to put it on the ballot.
- California’s elections are already secure. Voters swear to citizenship under penalty of perjury, and officials verify identity at registration, check the rolls in person, and match every mail ballot signature.
- A new registration hurdle. Millions of existing voters could be forced to effectively re-register to “designate” a government ID for mail voting, like a driver’s license or Social Security number.
- Identity theft risk. You would be required to put the last four digits of that sensitive ID number on the outside of your ballot envelope – next to your name, address, and signature.
- Valid ballots thrown out. Your mailed ballot would not be counted if the number you wrote didn’t match the “designated” number. One wrong digit or a blank field could sink a valid ballot, with no guaranteed notice or chance to fix it. Texas tried this and rejected one in eight mail ballots. Those voters were less likely to vote again.
- An ID check every time you vote in person. You would have to show a government-issued ID every time, even after officials verified who you are. Most voters turned away under similar laws elsewhere had qualifying ID, just not on them.
- A modern-day poll tax. A “free” ID is not free. Getting one costs transportation, childcare, time off work, and fees for the paperwork behind it. Seniors, students, low-income workers, voters with disabilities, and voters of color are hit hardest.
- Valid ID still must match. Nearly 30 percent of U.S. adults have changed their name, 94 percent of them women. Californians who took a new name at marriage, and transgender voters whose documents lag may hold valid ID and be turned away anyway.
- Bad data and wrongful purges. Citizenship checks would likely run through untrustworthy federal databases that wrongly flag eligible citizens to purge them from voter rolls.
- Longer lines and slower results. Extra ID checks and flagged ballots add delay, and the lawsuits would stretch it further, handing election deniers more time to spread lies.
- Hundreds of millions of dollars every year. New systems, staffing, free ID cards, audits, and lawsuits, all paid for while California already has budget problems.
Don’t let President Trump and right-wing billionaires decide whose vote counts. Vote NO on Proposition 39.
(The LWVC is an official opponent and has signed ballot arguments.)
League Analysis
Background
California already verifies voter identity at multiple points. Registrants must provide a driver’s license or state ID number, the last four digits of a Social Security number, or receive a unique state number, and they swear to citizenship under penalty of perjury. Mail ballots are tracked and signatures are compared against the signature on file. In-person voters state their name and address and sign the roster; it is a crime to impersonate another voter. The fraud Prop 39 claims to address is vanishingly rare.
A Brookings Institution analysis, from a nonpartisan think tank and using data compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation, found 36 documented cases in Arizona over 25 years and 42.6 million ballots, and no election outcome altered by fraud in that time. The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan voting-rights research organization, found in-person impersonation fraud rates of 0.0003% to 0.0025% in elections studied closely for fraud. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a bipartisan policy organization, reviewed the Heritage database and counted 77 instances of noncitizen voting nationwide from 1999 through 2023. And a comprehensive review completed in 2026 by Utah’s Republican-led state election officials examined more than 2 million voter records and found just 27 confirmed noncitizens on the rolls, 0.0013% of the records reviewed. Only 13 had voted, equivalent to 0.0006% of the records reviewed. The review flagged another 25 probable cases, nine of whom had voted, which still puts every confirmed and probable case at 0.0025% of the records checked.1
[ 1 Utah’s review also exposed registration-process failures rather than a systemic voting problem: 14 of the 27 confirmed noncitizens had marked “No” when asked if they were citizens and should never have been registered, and state officials identified human error and vulnerabilities in the former registration system. Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor said the results did not show a widespread problem. ]
These findings come from nonpartisan, bipartisan, conservative, voting-rights, and Republican-led sources, yet point in the same direction: voter impersonation and noncitizen voting are extraordinarily rare.
The Proposition
Prop 39 would amend the California Constitution to require a government-issued ID every time someone votes in person. It does not specify which IDs would be accepted or provide an exception for voters who lack one. Mail voters would have to select an ID in their registration record, like a Social Security or drivers’ license number, and write the matching last four digits on every return envelope, with no required privacy flap. The measure does not explain how people who are already registered would designate an ID number in their voter-registration record. Millions of existing voters could therefore have to re-register just to continue voting by mail. Election officials would also have to make “best efforts” to verify citizenship using flawed government data never intended for the purpose and report the results annually. The State Auditor would audit compliance every odd-numbered year. Any citizen could sue the state or a county for noncompliance, though the measure does not say what evidence would be required.
Identity Theft and Privacy Risk
Prop 39 would put personal ID numbers on the outside of millions of mailed envelopes. The California Department of Justice warns against broad exposure of Social Security numbers. The Attorney General also identifies driver’s license numbers as sensitive personal information and advises limiting access to them and protecting them from public view. See also the California DOJ Data Breach Report. Counties must retain federal election records for 22 months, extending the time a number could be copied, stolen, or mishandled.
Ballot Rejections and Barriers to Voting
The measure does not require election officials to notify voters or let them correct a missing or mismatched number before rejecting a ballot. That turns voting by mail into a clerical test: leave the field blank, transpose digits, or use a different ID number, and an eligible voter’s ballot could be rejected. Texas adopted a similar mail-ballot rule and rejected about 12.4%, or roughly one in eight, ballots cast in the first election under the new rule. Research from the Brennan Center found affected voters were significantly less likely to vote later. In person, research on strict ID laws found that most voters turned away actually possessed qualifying ID but did not have it with them. Checking ID for every in-person voter would also slow check-in and lengthen lines, especially for people balancing work, childcare, eldercare, or disability. More flagged ballots would burden election workers, slow the count, and give election deniers more time to spread false claims.
Who Would Be Hit Hardest?
These burdens would not fall evenly. Seniors, students, low-income workers, voters with disabilities, voters of color, and people whose names have changed through marriage, divorce, or gender transition are more likely to face transportation, mobility, documentation, or record-matching problems. A voter can be eligible, properly registered, and holding valid ID yet still be blocked because a document is hard to replace or records have not caught up with a move or name change. Prop 39 turns ordinary life changes into new reasons to delay or reject a valid vote.
A Modern-Day Poll Tax
A “free” ID card does not make the requirement free. Voters may still have to pay for transportation, childcare, time off work, and underlying documents such as birth certificates, marriage records, or court orders. Nearly 30% of U.S. adults have changed their name, and women make up 94% of that group. Updating the records and documents needed for current identification adds cost and delay, and a name-change mismatch can block an otherwise eligible, properly registered voter from satisfying Prop 39’s exacting match requirement.
Citizenship Verification Risks
Prop 39 does not specify which databases officials must use or how conflicting records should be resolved. It could rely on systems such as the federal SAVE program, which a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found produced erroneous noncitizen flags, especially for citizens born abroad. In surveyed Texas counties, more than 5% of flagged voters proved they were citizens; in Denton County, at least 14% did. The measure’s private right of action could pressure counties to act on the same flawed data.
Fiscal Impact
The state and counties could spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year changing 23 voter-registration systems, processing ID selections for existing voters, issuing “free” voter ID cards, training staff, checking citizenship, conducting audits, and defending lawsuits. California would spend that money on a problem that credible research shows does not exist while managing significant budget problems.
The Political Context
Prop 39 is a partisan power grab bankrolled by right-wing billionaires and MAGA megadonors. At least nine billionaires helped finance the campaign, many with a history of backing Trump and the GOP. Its largest donor, Richard Uihlein, gave $4 million and has funded candidates and groups that promoted false claims about the 2020 election. Prop 39 did not arise from a California election problem. Trump demanded voter ID as a condition of Los Angeles wildfire relief in January 2025. Routine FEMA and SBA aid continued, but Congress never appropriated the roughly $34 billion recovery package Governor Newsom requested. As of Newsom’s May 2026 trip to Washington, the White House had not transmitted the request to Congress despite bipartisan support for it. The same national campaign has used federal power to target state elections. A judge dismissed United States v. Weber, the Justice Department’s attempt to obtain California’s full, unredacted voter file. (Appeal pending as of August 2026). Courts blocked parts of Trump’s March 2025 executive order pushing proof-of-citizenship requirements, and Attorney General Bondi later made the same demand of Minnesota, conditioning cooperation on access to its voter rolls. Congressional Republicans have pursued the SAVE Act. Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, the measure’s author, has described his voter ID legislation as satisfying conditions the administration set for California. Prop 39 carries that agenda into the California Constitution.
Relevant League Positions Voting Rights (State). Support measures that protect every citizen’s right to vote and safeguard the voting process, and oppose requirements that condition the right to vote on identification beyond what is necessary and reasonable.
Individual Liberties (National). The League of Women Voters opposes major threats to basic constitutional rights and believes that individual liberties guaranteed by the Constitution should not be weakened or abridged.
Source: California LWV Ballot Proposition Positions – Nov. 3, 2026 Election (PDF)
