![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-prop-39-006.jpg\")
Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and Assemblymember Carl DeMaio embrace during a rally supporting Proposition 39 at the Lakeside Rodeo on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nProposition 39, which would require California\u2019s roughly 23 million registered voters to provide additional identification to vote, is a statewide ballot measure that features a decidedly local flavor, having been authored by San Diego-area Republican state Assemblymember Carl DeMaio and championed by his group, Reform California.<\/p>\n
If passed, Proposition 39 would usher in two main changes to voting in California. The increasingly small percentage of voters who cast a ballot in person would be required to show a government-issued ID at their polling stations, while the large majority who vote by mail \u2014 about 82% \u2014\u00a0would be required to write the last four digits of their driver\u2019s license, Social Security or other identification number on the outside of their ballot envelope.<\/p>\n
With just about one week to go until the election, local officials have been making their final arguments for and against the measure.<\/p>\n
DeMaio, who is on a statewide tour urging \u201cyes\u201d votes, held rallies Saturday in Poway and Lakeside. He and other supporters argue Proposition 39 would add extra security and prevent noncitizens from voting.<\/p>\n
Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and Assemblymember Carl DeMaio embrace during a rally supporting Proposition 39 at the Lakeside Rodeo on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
At a recent news conference in Barrio Logan, local elected Democrats urging \u201cno\u201d votes argued that California\u2019s elections are already secure, that the ID-number requirement would expose voters to potential identity theft and that voter fraud by noncitizens is very rare.<\/p>\n
Now as the race enters its final stage, both supporters and opponents are pointing to recent legal actions by the Trump administration as evidence of their claims.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 15, the Trump administration alleged in a federal civil lawsuit that it had identified 20,000 likely noncitizens<\/a> who are registered to vote in California. State and local election officials have argued in response that similar claims by the federal government in other states have fizzled out<\/a>, and that\u00a0a preliminary review of a small subset<\/a> of those 20,000 voters found evidence that nearly 40% were born in the U.S.<\/p>\n Days after filing that civil suit, the U.S. Department of Justice brought criminal charges against 28 green-card holders<\/a> in the state, including four in San Diego, who are suspected of unlawfully registering to vote or casting a ballot in past elections. Those defendants have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n DeMaio and other supporters of Proposition 39 argued that those legal actions bolstered their arguments. \u201cIf you want a common-sense, bipartisan approach to voter ID, Prop. 39 is the solution,\u201d DeMaio told the Union-Tribune in a recent interview.<\/p>\n But opponents of Proposition 39 hope that voters will view the federal government\u2019s recent legal actions as a last-ditch effort by an increasingly unpopular president<\/a> to boost a measure that they argued will disenfranchise voters in a heavily blue state. In fact, some opponents of the measure may see the federal government\u2019s legal actions as evidence to help bolster their claims that Proposition 39 is a \u201cTrump-driven, MAGA-funded power grab\u201d aimed at making voting harder, as it was described at the Barrio Logan news conference by David Trujillo, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s California Action.<\/p>\n Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego and the co-director of UCSD\u2019s Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections, said that although he hadn\u2019t conducted a survey on how voters might view Proposition 39 in light of the DOJ\u2019s civil lawsuit and criminal charges, he believed most voters would view the issue along the nation\u2019s usual partisan lines.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people may take this as evidence that there might be lots of people who are ineligible to vote; others may take this as evidence that \u2026 this is all part of Donald Trump aiming to increase distrust in elections,\u201d Kousser said. \u201cAnd so I think voters may view this through either blue or red lenses.\u201d<\/p>\n For their part, state and local elections officials insist elections are secure. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former state lawmaker from San Diego, said concerns about voter fraud are not legitimate.<\/p>\n \u201cI oppose Prop 39 because it is unnecessary,\u201d Weber wrote in a recent candidate Q&A<\/a>. \u201cCalifornians already have to present valid identification to register to vote in the first place. Voter fraud is unbelievably rare and does not happen on a large scale. This measure will depress turnout by making it harder to exercise the franchise in order to solve a fake problem.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Diego County Registrar\u2019s Office said that California law already requires individuals registering to vote to affirm under penalty of perjury that they meet citizenship eligibility and all other requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cElections officials do not have authority to investigate citizenship status through federal databases,\u201d the Registrar\u2019s Office said in a statement. \u201cInstead, the Registrar follows all procedures established by federal and state law and the statewide voter\u2011registration system, which includes identity matching, cross\u2011checks with state agencies, and required list\u2011maintenance safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n Kousser, who said he has no conflicts of interest when it comes to Proposition 39, said that California\u2019s current signature requirement is already a form of identification and a strong safeguard against voter fraud. He said the signature on \u201cevery single (mail-in) ballot\u201d is checked by election officials and compared to that voter\u2019s signature on past registration or DMV documents. That need to forge a signature almost perfectly makes impersonation fraud very unlikely, he said.<\/p>\n Brittany Stonesifer, an attorney and a senior voting rights and redistricting program manager with Common Cause California, which opposes Proposition 39, said the threat of perjury when individuals register to vote is the strongest safeguard against non-citizens registering.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the very, very rare instances where someone does commit that felony, we see it in the news because they\u2019re prosecuted,\u201d Stonesifer said.<\/p>\n To that point, the 28 individuals charged by federal prosecutors last week were longtime lawful permanent residents, or green-card holders, who were allegedly caught when they applied to become naturalized U.S. citizens. The four San Diego County defendants each came to the U.S. as teenagers and have lived here for decades, according to the criminal complaints against them. But they now face almost certain deportation if convicted.<\/p>\n \u201cA great way to get caught is by creating a paper trail,\u201d Stonesifer said. \u201cThat\u2019s why people don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n DeMaio argued that those sorts of enforcement actions \u201cwill just continue to erode confidence and trust in our elections \u2026 unless we pass Prop 39 and start fixing the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Proposition 39 would add language to state law requiring that the secretary of state and county elections officials \u201cuse best efforts to verify citizenship attestations using government data, and shall annually report what percentage of each county\u2019s voter rolls have been citizenship-verified.\u201d<\/p>\n During the recent news conference in Barrio Logan, county Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe argued that Proposition 39 was \u201cbeing sold to voters as election integrity,\u201d but that it would actually \u201cput new hurdles in front of\u201d voters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would create more opportunities for valid ballots to be rejected and it would make voting more difficult for people who may already have the hardest time getting to the polls,\u201d Montgomery Steppe said. \u201cWe know from our history what happens when people who fear justice and equality decide who gets to vote and who doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n DeMaio rejected that argument and contended that a four-digit identifying number would be more effective than a signature at verifying someone\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n \u201cOur four-digit approach basically creates a PIN for people who want to vote by mail that makes ballot processing less expensive, makes it faster to get the results,\u201d DeMaio said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to verify someone based on four digits versus their signature. There\u2019s a higher risk that someone\u2019s signature won\u2019t match, whereas four digits is pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office estimated<\/a> that \u201cProposition 39 would increase state and local government costs each year by tens of millions of dollars to low hundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n DeMaio\u00a0called that estimate \u201cabsolutely absurd.\u201d He argued that \u201cwhen government politicians don\u2019t want something, they try to come up with every excuse as to how bad it is, so it\u2019s not a fair or accurate fiscal assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n State finance records showed that as of the most recent reporting deadline on Oct. 22,\u00a0donors supporting Proposition 39 had pledged more than $36 million to the cause, while those opposed had pledged about $33.5 million.<\/p>\n![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SUT-L-VOTER-ID-002.jpg\")
David Alvarez, California State Assemblymember for the 80th District, speaks during a press conference in opposition to Prop 39 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at Barrio Youth Center in San Diego, CA. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/California-Ballot_Signatures_89540.jpg\")
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber in 2026. (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu, File)<\/p>\n![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-prop-39-016.jpg\")
Volunteers Joshua Sperling and Haydee Sperling assemble yard signs during a rally supporting Proposition 39 at the Lakeside Rodeo on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n