The Battle Over Voter ID in California

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

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Mina Kim (0:22)

Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.

The president has aggressively pushed for voter ID mandates and restrictions on voting by mail in an effort to rein in an election system that he claims, without evidence, is rife with fraud. So is California's Proposition 39, which would impose stricter identification requirements on voting in person and by mail, an outgrowth of that? Or is it a common sense measure to restore confidence in elections, as its supporters say? Joining me to break it all down as you fill out your midterm ballots, Marisa Lagos, correspondent on KQED's Politics and Government Desk and co-host of Political Breakdown. Hi, Marisa.

Marisa Lagos (1:00)

Good morning.

Mina Kim (1:00)

Also with us is Guy Marzorati, correspondent on KQED's politics team as well. Hi, Guy.

Guy Marzorati (1:05)

Hey, good morning.

Mina Kim (1:06)

So start us off, Guy. What would Prop 39 do if passed?

Guy Marzorati (1:12)

So Prop 39 would put in place new requirements for voting in California. For voting in person, it would be presenting a government ID when you vote. But for the vast majority of Californians who vote by mail, it would be a little bit different. You'd actually have to write down a four-digit number from one piece of government ID. So that could be a driver's license. You'd write that down on the outside of the ballot. But there's a lot of outstanding questions about how that would actually work. Each of us would have to, if this passes, choose which government ID we're going to be using as part of that vote by mail ID program.

So in essence, and this would have to be worked out in some form or fashion, but you'd have 23 million registered voters, all basically having to re-register, pick which identification they'll be using so that when they do write down that four-digit number on their ballot envelope, it can be double-checked once the vote is cast.

Mina Kim (2:09)

Would it also add requirements with regard to auditing or checking voter rules?

Guy Marzorati (2:14)

Yeah, there's another provision in this ballot measure that asks both state election officials, the secretary of state and county election officials, to double-check whether the voters on the roles are citizens. And it says they have to do so using quote, like, their best effort. But that's another area of this proposition that would have to be defined in the future by the state legislature. What does that mean for these election officials to be using their best effort to check whether the folks on the voter roles are actually citizens?

Marisa Lagos (2:42)

I mean, something they would argue they're already doing.

Guy Marzorati (2:44)

Yeah, and the legislature would have to define that. And they could. It's a Democratic-controlled legislature.

The vast majority of members don't even think that this proposition should be made law. You could easily end up in a situation where if this does pass, the legislature basically signs off on the work that election officials are already doing as a way to confirm under the way this measure is written that folks on the roles are citizens.

Mina Kim (3:12)

Well, Marisa, who put this measure on the ballot?

Marisa Lagos (3:16)

I mean, the main proponent is Carl DeMaio. He's a long time San Diego politician. He hosted a radio show. I don't know if he was quite a shock jock, but sort of in that right-wing radio. He really came to prominence in San Diego 20 years ago when he was on the city council and was leading the fight to try to strip public employees of some of their retirement benefits. This was during a lot of concern about pension benefits being over generous.

I think a lot of people, including Democrats, had concerns and felt that it needed to be reined in. But DiMaio really angered a lot of public employee unions because he tried to actually clawback benefits that had already been promised to people instead of making it moving forward. He went on, as I said, to gain right-wing prominence with his radio show, and then eventually has come to the state legislature, and he's really the main person behind it. But it really is this coalition of him, other legislative Republicans, and then now we're seeing a lot of support from national figures from the MAGA movement who are pouring in money and supporting this.

Mina Kim (4:19)

And what does DeMaio say about why this proposition is needed?