Reform California Submits 1.35 Million Signatures to Place Voter ID Initiative on 2026 Ballot

In a significant push for election integrity, Reform California Chairman and State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) announced on Tuesday that his organization has collected and is submitting over 1.35 million signatures to qualify a Voter ID initiative for the November 2026 ballot. The initiative, which aims to require photo identification for in-person voting, citizenship verification for voter registration, and enhanced safeguards against non-citizen voting, represents a major grassroots effort to address long-standing concerns about California’s election processes.

DeMaio shared the milestone via a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “1.35M Signatures! Yesterday and today in each of the 58 counties in California, we are turning in signatures to force a vote on the CA Voter ID Initiative! We got it on the ballot, but now we need to PASS IT!” He urged supporters to join the campaign through Reform California’s website. The announcement was accompanied by photos of petition boxes and supporters at various county registrar offices, underscoring the statewide scope of the signature drive.

1.35M Signatures! Yesterday and today in each of the 58 counties in California, we are turning in signatures to force a vote on the CA Voter ID Initiative! We got it on the ballot, but now we need to PASS IT! Join the fight at https://t.co/TFn2RnSajd pic.twitter.com/1HzY1yjMjW

— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) March 3, 2026

In a conversation with the California Globe, DeMaio highlighted that the over 18,000 grassroots volunteers are “going to stay the course” to “bring change and reform in California to the ballot box.”

“Voter ID is a bipartisan issue and common sense. The only people who don’t want it is politicians. The fewer voters that show up in an election, the less expensive their campaigns are. They want to use every opportunity to divide us by partisan lines. But the majority of voters  want Voter ID. The politicians never give us what we want–they are not acting on 70 percent of what voters want,” DeMaio charged.

“If we get this across the finish line in November, it becomes a model of how we address other issues in the future,” DeMaio promised, noting, “No one thought we could do this, but we have over 18,000 volunteers across the state and Republicans didn’t have that for decades. We are gong to stay the course and bring this energy to races this fall and build on the momentum. We worked with Howard Jarvis Taxpayers association to gather signatures to save Prop 13 and we are confident that in the 2028 cycle, we will put more reforms on the ballot because change and reform will have to be done at the ballot box. This is what democracy looks like.”

The Voter ID initiative traces its roots to legislative efforts by DeMaio and former Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside), who introduced AB 1485 in early 2025 to mandate voter ID for both in-person and mail-in ballots. Although the bill was killed by Democrats in committee, who argued it would restrict voting access, DeMaio pivoted to a ballot measure strategy. In July 2025, DeMaio and Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) formally launched the campaign for the constitutional amendment, emphasizing the need for proof of citizenship to prevent non-citizen voting. 

Public polling has consistently shown strong backing for such reforms. A May 2025 UC Berkeley IGS poll found that 71% of Californians support requiring proof of citizenship for first-time voter registration, with 54% favoring it before each election. DeMaio has framed the initiative as a response to perceived vulnerabilities in California’s no-ID voting system, which he and supporters argue enables fraud and undermines confidence in elections.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the overwhelming and broad-based support for the CA Voter ID initiative,” DeMaio said in a prior statement. “By submitting 1.35 million signatures, we are confident this initiative will qualify for the November 2026 midterm ballot.” He has also warned of potential “dirty tricks” from opponents and vowed to assemble a legal team to ensure the measure’s placement on the ballot.

Critics, including Democratic leaders and voting rights groups, have dismissed the initiative as unnecessary and suppressive, pointing to low rates of documented voter fraud in the state. However, recent legal battles, such as the California Supreme Court’s January 2026 ruling striking down Huntington Beach’s local voter ID law, have intensified the debate over election security at the municipal and state levels. 

If validated by county election officials and the Secretary of State—requiring at least 874,641 valid signatures—the measure will appear on the 2026 ballot as a constitutional amendment. Once approved by voters, it would bind state politicians to implement the reforms, bypassing potential legislative resistance.