FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2026
Contact: (916) 442-7215 | communications [at] lwvc.org

Today, a broad coalition of voting rights, disability rights, community and labor organizations, vowed to defeat an anti-voter proposition that is headed for the November ballot. This measure would make it harder for millions of eligible Californians to vote, expose voters to potential identity theft, and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

“California’s elections are already secure,” said David Trujillo, executive director of ACLU California Action. “This is voter suppression, pure and simple and would create new obstacles to voting for countless Californians.”

This initiative is part of a dangerous national trend of anti-voter laws, meant to incite fear and distrust in our elections. We, as a coalition, promise to defeat this measure by exposing the false claims behind the initiative and the very real harms it would inflict on voters across California.

If voters approve this measure in the November 2026 election, the roughly 80% of Californians who vote by mail would be required to write the last four digits of their government ID number on the outside of their ballot envelope, exposing millions of voters to potential identity fraud.

“This measure makes it harder for Americans to cast a ballot and exposes voters to identity theft,” said Brittany Stonesifer, senior voting rights & redistricting program manager at California Common Cause. “It’s unsafe to require voters to list their sensitive personal data, including their driver’s license and social security numbers, on the outside of an envelope that passes through countless hands and sits in public records for nearly two years.”

Not everyone has an ID that could be used for voting. And getting a government ID in time for an election is not a simple process for many eligible voters.

“Getting an ID can require taking time off work, arranging transportation, gathering documents like birth certificates, and paying fees,” said Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California. “Those barriers fall hardest on people of color, seniors, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, and those in rural areas.”

People who vote in person would also be required to show a government ID that is current. Registered voters who change their names after getting married or divorced, who have recently moved, or whose records contain even a small clerical error could show up to vote and be denied a ballot. The measure would also require elections officials to do citizenship investigations of all California voters, even though eligibility is already verified during registration. If officials use databases that contain outdated or incomplete information, eligible voters are likely to be wrongly purged from the rolls through no fault of their own.

Election officials in California already verify voters’ eligibility through signature matching, voter registration databases, ballot tracking, and other safeguards throughout the voting process.

“This ballot measure is a multi-million dollar so-called solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Michael Gomez Daly, political director for the California Donor Table. “Californians are not fooled. This totally unnecessary ballot measure is just part of Trump’s national campaign to stop people from voting who don’t support his authoritarian agenda.”

The coalition includes the following groups who invite others to join in this opposition campaign:

• ACLU of Northern California
• ACLU of Southern California
• ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties
• ACLU California Action
• Asian Law Caucus
• California Black Power Network
• California Common Cause
• California Donor Table
• CHIRLA
• Courage California
• Disability Rights California
• Equality California
• For the People Action
• League of Women Voters of California
• NextGen Policy
• VoteRiders

For more information, read our voter ID fast facts.

The coalition has formed a campaign committee registered with the Fair Political Practices Commission to oppose the measure.

Californians for Voting Rights, sponsored by California Donor Table & ACLU of Northern California, is the campaign committee registered with the Fair Political Practices Commission (ID #1489007) to oppose the measure.