{"id":417083,"date":"2026-07-29T21:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417083\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:31:10","slug":"top-california-democratic-lawmakers-challenge-prop-39-claims-in-voter-guide-about-voter-id-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417083\/","title":{"rendered":"Top California Democratic lawmakers challenge Prop 39 claims in voter guide about voter ID measure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Top California Democratic lawmakers challenge Prop 39 claims in voter guide about voter ID measure<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d03e0bab-ef7a-443e-8cb6-5c73783c2a82_1639881685.jpg\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Daniel Macht\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/news-team\/21271fb1-6e06-4bcf-8b56-97b158a0e14b\" aria-label=\"Ashley Zavala profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/21271fb1-6e06-4bcf-8b56-97b158a0e14b_1759272616.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Ashley Zavala\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and California Senate President Pro Tem Monique Lim\u00f3n are taking legal action to block language submitted to the state\u2019s voter guide about the Proposition 39 voter ID ballot measure.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">The top Democratic lawmakers are calling for \u201cfalse or misleading\u201d language to be stripped from arguments in favor of Prop 39, the rebuttal to the argument against Prop 39, and the ballot argument summary before the state&#8217;s voter guide is printed ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Prop 39 would prohibit citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification and require state and local elections officials to make \u201cbest efforts\u201d using government data to verify that voters on the rolls are U.S. citizens, <a href=\"https:\/\/lao.ca.gov\/BallotAnalysis\/Proposition?number=39&amp;year=2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office<\/a>. It would also require elections officials to report each year the percentage of registered voters in each county whose citizenship has been verified. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">In addition, the measure would require voters to present government-issued ID when registering to vote by mail. Voters would have to present their ID if voting in person or provide the last four digits of their ID number on the ballot envelope when voting by mail. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">The measure would also require the state to provide a voter ID card for free to voters who request one.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">The Democrats&#8217; lawsuit notes the LAO said the measure would increase state and local government costs by \u201ctens of millions of dollars to low hundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">\u201cProposition 39\u2019s supporters would have California voters believe otherwise,\u201d the lawsuit says.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">In  a press release, Rivas and Lim\u00f3n  said Prop 39 \u201cis the brainchild of MAGA activists, including Carl DeMaio and his so-called Reform California network, who have a long history of supporting campaigns to help Trump and attack voting rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">The press release also claims that Trump \u201cendorsed the Prop 39 in January 2025, shortly after it launched.\u201d <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">While Trump has called for voter ID requirements and Prop 39&#8217;s backer, Sen. Carl DeMaio,  <a href=\"https:\/\/ad75.asmrc.org\/2025\/01\/27\/demaio-introduces-ca-voter-id-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced in January 2025 legislation<\/a> that he said would fulfill that, Trump has not specifically endorsed Prop 39.  <\/p>\n<p>Another lawsuit related to Prop 39<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"11\">The new lawsuit comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/prop-39-campaign-sues-california-attorney-general-voter-id-measure\/73296334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Prop 39\u2019s proponents filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta<\/a>, alleging that his revised ballot title for the measure is misleading and violates state election laws.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">It initially had the title &#8220;Establishes additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements,&#8221; which proponents used last year to gather signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"13\">On July 3, Bonta&#8217;s office changed the title to &#8220;Prohibits citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"14\">In that lawsuit filed Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court, the campaign argued that the new title is inaccurate and violates the law requiring the attorney general to &#8220;give a true and impartial statement of the purpose of the measure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"15\">The group also claimed the revised title omits a key aspect of the measure, which would create new responsibilities for the state and counties to maintain accurate voter rolls and verify citizenship.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"16\">The lawsuit also names Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber and asks the court to compel state officials to correct the title before ballots and voter information guides are printed. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"17\">DeMaio, who is leading the effort on the ballot measure, accused Bonta of trying to \u201cscare voters into voting no.\u201d <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"18\">DeMaio argued that the original title accurately reflected the measure&#8217;s intent, which he described as requiring voter ID and citizenship verification for voter registration.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"19\">&#8220;Nothing in our initiative prohibits citizens from voting,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In fact, we&#8217;re trying to protect citizen votes from being canceled out by illegitimate or illegal votes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"20\">Bonta defended his actions, stating that he believes the revised title will hold up in court and that the changes were legal. He noted that he was responsible for writing titles and summaries for nine ballot measures and made changes to all of them.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"21\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> |<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Download our app<\/a> |<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> |<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> |<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=kcra.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top California Democratic lawmakers challenge Prop 39 claims in voter guide about voter ID measure California Assembly Speaker&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4487,163902,9610,7,9,8,1765,165370,1846,16612,8189,1920,166701,225,166834,1522,16607,54524,166833,166832],"class_list":["post-417083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ballot-envelope","tag-ballot-title","tag-bonta","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-citizen","tag-citizenship-verification-requirement","tag-lawsuit","tag-measure","tag-million","tag-prop","tag-prop-39","tag-state","tag-top-california-democratic-lawmaker","tag-voter","tag-voter-guide","tag-voter-id","tag-voter-id-card","tag-voter-id-measure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}