CA Voter ID Initiative Likely to Appear on 2026 Ballot, Surpasses 600,000 Signatures | Megan Barth, California Globe The organizers and volunteers have 96 days to gather the needed one million signatures A California Voter ID initiative looks likely to appear on the 2026 ballot with over 600,000 signatures, just short of the million signatures needed to qualify. The organizers and volunteers have 96 days to gather the remaining signatures for the initiative to appear before the voters and have expressed confidence they will gather the million signatures within the next few months. According to Assemblyman Carl DeMaio’s Reform California, the organization spearheading the effort, “the ballot initiative is a state constitutional amendment to impose a Voter ID requirement for all future elections in California. Because the proposal is a constitutional amendment, once approved by the voters, state politicians will be compelled to comply with it for all future elections – no exceptions.” The initiative requires a government-issued voter ID to vote in person, or the last four digits of a government-issued voter ID to vote by mail. Additionally, the initiative would require election officials to verify the citizenship of registered voters. According to the latest polling data, a majority of California voters support the initiative’s requirements with 68 percent supporting Voter ID for casting a ballot and 79 percent supporting verification of citizenship. Despite claims by Democrats that Voter ID is “racist,” a significant majority within minority communities support the initiative, according to Gallup. Assemblyman DeMaio contends that the passage of the initiative will create an “earthquake” in California politics and will “fix the many election fraud issues” that exist in California’s voting system. “Support for voter ID laws transcends party lines—it’s not a Republican or Democratic issue. Polls consistently show that majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents favor these measures … Voter ID is simply a common-sense policy. California needs to modernize its elections to align with the vast majority of the world’s democracies. While our state leads in so many areas, it lags behind on this issue. It’s time for California to catch up and enact voter ID laws,” said Julie Luckey, Director of Californians for Voter ID. Luckey has been an instrumental fundraiser for the ballot initiative, raising millions of dollars to support the effort. POLITICO reports that Luckey is driving the fundraising effort, successfully raising enough for a paid signature-gathering operation that has produced 75 percent of the signatures to date. “As DeMaio leads the grassroots side of the campaign, Luckey has been leveraging her connections in donor circles to reel in big checks, including a combined $500,000 from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and $370,000 from Nicole Shanahan, an entrepreneur and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former running mate . It is Luckey on the phone with donors, promising that the money will be spent effectively rather than to enrich an army of consultants. Since July, Californians for Voter ID has raised about $5 million,” POLITICO reports.