Should California institute new ID requirements for casting a ballot? Below, a civic engagement advocate worries Proposition 39 will add unnecessary new barriers to a secure and effective system. The opposing view: A former state elections chiefs says the measure will help alleviate doubts in California’s vote.

Guest Commentary written by

Marisol Ramirez

Marisol Ramirez

Marisol Ramirez is a member of the Inland Empire Latino Giving Circle, advancing democratic participation, community leadership and equitable access to civic institutions.

This November, Californians will head to the ballot box and participate in another election with real consequences for our communities.

As a Latina and local philanthropist in the Inland Empire who has spent nearly two decades working to strengthen civic participation, I have learned that democracy is strongest when elections are both accessible and secure. 

From celebrating newly naturalized citizens after they cast their first ballot to watching young people become lifelong voters because someone took the time to explain the process, I know how important it is for every voter to have the power to decide the future of our country.

That progress deserves careful protection, yet it stands in jeopardy this fall. 

Proposition 39, one of the many statewide ballot propositions California voters will tackle, essentially will make it harder for all voters to participate in future elections. 

If passed, it would require eligible voters to present a government-issued ID for in-person voting. It would also ask mail-in voters to provide the last four digits of a government ID on their ballots, which election officials would need to subsequently verify against their voter registration information. 

California’s voting law is already clear: Any individual who wants to register to vote must state, under penalty of perjury, that they are a United States citizen. That requires everyone to provide information to verify their identity, such as a driver’s license or a social security number.

Since California has a process in place to require all potential voters to prove their eligibility, Prop. 39 is a redundant step that will simply add new barriers for voters to cast a ballot. And it is already a federal crime to vote if you are not a citizen.

Should voters pass Prop. 39, millions of Californians could encounter difficulties at the ballot box and could be denied the right to participate in our elections — despite being eligible to vote. Chief among them would be the communities I have worked most closely with: Latinos and young people. 

Over 1 in 4 Latino adults do not have a driver’s license that shows their current name or address, with 41% of youth, age 18-24, in a similar predicament. As the political power of Latinos and young people grows with every election cycle, these measures are designed to undercut their influence in California policy and politics for generations to come. 

Many eligible voters, particularly immigrant and mixed-status communities, already hesitate to engage with government systems out of concern for their privacy and how their personal information is used. Adding a new ID requirement may unintentionally deepen that hesitation, ultimately discouraging civic participation among eligible voters, while raising questions about implementation costs, data security and overall public trust.

Proponents argue that presenting ID when voting deters fraud and maintains election integrity, but numerous studies have shown that voter fraud is astoundingly rare. According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, voter fraud incidents have hovered between 0.0003% and 0.0025%, making it virtually nonexistent. 

To add one final point, instituting more stringent voter identification processes would have major fiscal impacts to California taxpayers. As the state faces ongoing budget deficits, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that creating a brand new form of identification — as Prop. 39 would mandate — could cost anywhere from tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions. 

Even if it is supposedly free to obtain, it carries a major price tag. Any reasonable Californian can agree that taxpayer funds should not be wasted on problems that do not exist. 

California is home to more than 27 million eligible voters, making the state the largest individual democracy in the entire nation. In a moment when the nation is commemorating its 250th anniversary, now is not a time to make it more difficult to participate in our elections. 

Rather, Californians can live up to the ideals our founding fathers bequeathed to us all by ensuring every eligible Californian can participate confidently, freely and fully.