When your vote-by-mail ballot arrives in less than two months, you are going to have the chance to vote for Proposition 39: Voter ID. I am hoping you will be prepared to encourage everyone you know to vote for this proposition to ensure election integrity.
Prop 39 requires first-time registrants to present a form of ID that is less onerous than that which the government currently requires to get on a plane or go into a federal building. In California, this ID is called Real ID. During the online REAL ID application process, residents are required to present documents that prove identity (e.g., valid passport or birth certificate) and residency (e.g., utility bill, bank statement).
Prop 39 requires nothing more than a valid CA ID for in-person voting. That would include a CA driver’s license or a (free) voter ID card available to any voter who requests one. Under Prop 39, no voter will be required to show a birth certificate, marriage license, etc. to vote. The citizenship verification is all done by the government using existing government data systems.
Citizens wishing to vote by mail can continue to do so and would simply be required to enter the last four digits of their SSN or REAL ID on the ballot envelope to further protect them from the fraud associated with strangers submitting ballots in their name without their permission.
Regardless of this common sense, no-hassle approach, and considering the fact that upwards of 80 percent of all citizens favor voter ID, nevertheless, Democrats and Socialists are opposed.
Why?
The only logical explanation is that they want people to be able to vote without our ability to determine whether it is legal or not for them to do so. That is plain to see because the Prop 39 requirements to vote are not at all arduous compared to other activities that also require an ID.
Making It More Difficult to Cheat
Most Americans want to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat.
Let me repeat that. What we want in our elections is to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat.
Easy to vote means you submit your CA ID when you go to vote. Prop 39 is all about making it hard to cheat by requiring newly registered voters to prove their identity as a citizen the first time they register to vote. The left argues that this will disenfranchise minorities and women.
That is not true.
Consider all the other things in life that require an ID. Presenting a driver’s license is required for renting a car, opening a bank account, purchasing a car, getting a job, and in some states, you must present your driver’s license to donate blood. Women have been able to get a new ID once they get married quite easily. Nobody has claimed that minorities and women can’t fly or go on cruise ships; getting a valid ID and/or passport is required for these activities as well, so why the double standard compared to imposing these same or lesser requirements for voting?
Finally, to get something as mundane as a fishing license in CA you must present a DMV ID, passport, green card, or military ID. These requirements are much more onerous than what we currently require to preserve the sanctity of the right to vote.
That is, today it is easier to vote than fish in CA!
AG Bonta’s Sleazy Replacement Language
Of course, because we live in the banana republic of CA, it wouldn’t be election season without our state Attorney General Rob Bonta trying to manipulate and dupe voters by assigning a ballot title to Prop 39 to confuse and dissuade voters as to the true intentions and goals of the proposition.
How so?
Bonta knows that some people will only read the title of the proposition to determine how they will vote.
As reported by Katy Grimes of the California Globe: The original FAIR Prop 39 title, on September 19, 2025, was as follows:
Establishes Additional Voter Identification and citizenship Verification Requirements.
Initiative Constitutional Amendment. This measure would amend the California Constitution to further require that voters present government-issued identification at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail; the State provide voter identification cards on request; and elections officials annually report percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.
Attorney General Rob Bonta replaced that language with this:
Revised dishonest Prop 39 Title as of July 21, 2026:
Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government-issued Identification.
Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Invalidates mail ballots that do not have last four digits of designated government-issued identification number written on envelope. Prohibits in-person voting without presenting government-issued identification.
Vote YES on Prop 39
As Katy Grimes notes, “Attorney General Rob Bonta is corruptly trying to rig the election against Prop 39 by falsely claiming it prohibits citizens from voting.”
So please tell everyone you know that Proposition 39 is going to be on the ballot this fall and ask them to please vote YES.
Community Calendar:
Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com