Gavin Newsom signed a law banning local voter ID after Huntington Beach voters approved one.
Now they're trying to kill the statewide voter ID ballot measure and the method is brazen.
What California Democrats buried inside the official voter guide to stop it crosses every line.
California AG Rob Bonta Rigged the Voter ID Ballot Title
Proposition 39 is a commonsense voter ID measure backed by 1.3 million California signatures – well past the required 875,000.
It requires a government-issued ID to vote in person and the last four digits of an ID number for mail-in ballots.
The measure even includes free voter ID cards for anyone without a driver's license – the "suppression" argument is a lie from the start.
Supporters thought collecting 1.3 million signatures was the hard part.
They were wrong.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta – a Democrat who has publicly opposed voter ID – holds the power to write every ballot measure's official title and summary.
For ten months, Bonta used neutral language: "establishes additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements."
Then, just before the election, he changed it to: "prohibits citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification."
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio – the Republican who led the signature drive – called it exactly what it was.
"California politicians know that a supermajority of California voters support Prop 39's bipartisan solution for voter ID – so now they are corruptly trying to rig the election by putting a biased and dishonest title on this common-sense measure," DeMaio said.
Supporters sued – and courts sided with Bonta.
The Voter Suppression Lie California Democrats Buried in the Official Voter Guide
California Democrats are terrified of one number: 83.
A Pew Research Center poll found that 83% of Americans strongly or somewhat favor requiring photo ID to vote.
A Fox News poll in July confirmed the same number – 83% – including 74% of Democrats, 84% of minority voters, and 85% of Hispanic voters.
When 74% of Democrats support something, it is not a partisan issue – it is settled.
And yet the official California voter guide – the document mailed to every registered voter in the state – includes this line from opponents: "Don't let MAGA billionaires decide which voters count. Vote No."
The groups behind that line – ACLU California Action, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters – dressed up fundraising email language and stamped it with the state's authority.
The group backing Prop 39 cited bipartisan support and election integrity. The opposition cited MAGA billionaires.
Californians are already voting – early ballots are in the mail ahead of November 3.
Some of them are reading a voter guide that reads like a Democratic Party attack ad.
Bonta set the trap first, rewriting the ballot title into a warning label. By the time voters opened the official voter guide, it was already stacked with the same campaign language. And if November 3 still does not break their way?
California already passed a law – after Huntington Beach voters approved their own local voter ID measure in 2024 – prohibiting local governments from implementing voter ID requirements at all.
They have a backup plan for the backup plan.
California Democrats have a veto at every stage – the title, the guide, and the law itself.
DeMaio put those signatures in front of the state and the state changed what they said they were supporting.
That is not democracy.
That is California.
California runs the most permissive voting system in the country. Residents register to vote through gym memberships and dozens of other organizations that require no proof of citizenship.
Every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot automatically – millions of them, sent to every address on the rolls, no ID required to send one back. In that system, Proposition 39 is not a new burden on voters. It is the first check that has ever existed.
Democrats are fighting the same battle at the federal level. In the U.S. Senate, they have blocked the SAVE Act – Trump's national voter ID bill – at every turn.
Eighty-three percent of Americans support what that bill does. Senate Democrats are fighting it anyway. When a party fights that hard against something 83% of the country agrees with, they are not protecting voters. They are protecting something else.
When Democrats put campaign slogans in a voter guide, they have already told you they lost the argument.
Eighty-three percent of Americans think showing ID to vote is reasonable.
Democrats cannot change that number, so they are changing everything around it.
Sources:
- Peter D'Abrosca, "Radical anti-Trump language riddles California voter guide on high-stakes ballot measure," Fox News, October 9, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "California Bucks National Trend as Voter ID Initiative Faces Uphill Fight," Daily Signal, August 19, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "Voter ID Advocates Take California AG to Court Over Ballot Description," Daily Signal, July 29, 2026.
- "California Attorney General Sabotages Voter ID Proposal," National Review, July 2026.
- Pew Research Center, "Majority of Americans Continue to Back Expanded Early Voting, Voting by Mail, Voter ID," August 22, 2025.