LOS ANGELES — A statewide ballot initiative that would require voters to show photo ID at the polls has hit more than 1 million signatures, organizers say — enough to potentially get it onto the ballot.
Republican California state Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, who is leading the push, said he hopes to add an additional 200,000 signatures by Feb. 1.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other tech execs are backing the proposal.
The “only reason to oppose it is to commit fraud,” Musk posted on X Sunday.
Musk has long pushed for voter ID requirements in the US.
But in California the biggest impact of the voter ID measure would be a provision that requires voters who mail in their ballot to include the last four digits of their ID number.
More than 80% of votes cast in the 2024 election in California were mailed in — compared with about 29% nationwide.
Stephen Richer — the former Maricopa County Recorder in Arizona who was in charge of voter registration and early voting — said he is concerned that the vote-by-mail ID provision could discourage some people from sending in their ballots.
Richer said getting people to support putting sensitive information in the mail could be a “little more complicated.”
“Simply showing a photo ID to vote in person, polls very well across the American political spectrum,” Richer said. “If you start putting other things on it, like in Maine, they just ran a voter ID campaign that lost in the most recent election, because they had other stuff pertaining to mail ballot voting that wasn’t nearly as popular.”
In addition to Musk, the measure has other big-name backers. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called it an “important for the foundation for democracy,” and urged Californians to sign up.
While the initiative has already surpassed the 874,641 signatures needed to make it on the November ballot, organizers are pushing to collect more autographs as an insurance policy in case some are deemed ineligible.
“We’ve now collected about one million signatures toward our 1.2 million signature goal from Californians across the state, but the job isn’t finished yet,” said Julie Luckey, the chair of Californians for Voter ID. “This final stretch is critical, and we need everyone who supports this effort to help us cross the finish line and qualify this measure for the ballot, so every Californian has the opportunity to make their voice heard in November.”
Luckey is the mother of tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense technology company Anduril.
Currently, California is one of 14 states that do not require photo ID to vote.
