Voter ID qualifies in California: Let’s see who defends democracy

This week a political tsunami hit California politicians when Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced that Reform California had successfully collected more than 1 million valid signatures to force a Voter ID initiative onto the November ballot for a public vote.

When we filed the initiative last summer, political insiders said we wouldn’t qualify because it is nearly impossible to collect the required 874,000 signatures to qualify without support from the big special interest groups that typically bankroll paid signature drives.  

But more than 18,000 volunteers stepped up to collect signatures, and a good-government coalition formed to financially support the initiative.   

I will forever be appreciative of every volunteer and contributor who came together and did the hard work of getting these signatures to force a public vote. 

Unfortunately, the very fact that we had to go through the trouble of collecting these signatures underscores how badly California’s political system is broken.  

Just as we are seeing at the federal level with the failure to advance the SAVE Act, California politicians refused to act even in the face of a bipartisan consensus in support of a Voter ID requirement. 

Every single public poll shows 70$%-80% support for a Voter ID requirement – including a majority of Democrat voters.  

Reflecting this bipartisan support, nearly half of the signatures we submitted came from Independents and Democrats! 

As we pivot to the passage phase of our campaign, we know California politicians will use dirty tricks to block our bipartisan movement for Voter ID. 

California politicians will shamefully inject partisan toxicity and division into the campaign. Politicians are already lying by claiming women and minorities won’t be able to vote if the initiative passes.  

The fact is our initiative simply requires voters to present a government-issued photo ID when casting a ballot — just as everyone must do to board a plane, enter many government buildings, buy certain medicines, or pick up event tickets. 

States that have enacted Voter ID requirements have seen no decline in women or minorities voting. In fact, they have seen even more minority participation in elections, not less. 

Our initiative holds state and local election officials accountable to verify citizenship and maintain accurate voter rolls. To provide greater transparency to the public, our initiative requires the state auditor to conduct regular audits of voter rolls and make the results public every two years before each election. 

None of these requirements are partisan. They are common-sense ideas to restore public trust and confidence in our voting system.  

Some politicians in the state legislature are already meeting behind closed doors to concoct schemes to block a vote on the measure, or to put a competing, fake initiative on the ballot to confuse voters. 

We also expect California politicians to manipulate ballot titles and summaries to mislead voters, like they always do. 

Keep in mind that the politicians playing these dirty tricks are the same ones who say there is nothing wrong with our election system. 

The real question every voter should be asking right now is: “Why do California politicians oppose Voter ID so strongly?”  

I believe it is because politicians benefit from partisan division and low participation in voting when people hear conspiracy theories or lose confidence in our voting system.  

If California politicians play dirty tricks on Voter ID, it will give our campaign a chance to make this election about more than just the common-sense requirements of our initiative.   

We can make a case that the politicians are the real threat to democracy — and that they are actually the ones seeking to suppress participating in voting by maintaining a system with so many flaws. 

As hard as it was to collect the 1.3 million signatures to put this initiative on the ballot, winning the passage campaign this November will end up being even harder, with the dirty tricks from politicians.

To win in November, we must stay focused and organized — and we need everyone to step forward and help. 

I invite you to join the campaign at VoterIDInitiative.com. 

Restoring confidence in our elections should be neither controversial nor partisan. It’s just good government that all voters — Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between — can agree on, even if our politicians seek to block us. 

Carl DeMaio is a member of the California State Assembly and chairman of Reform California.

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