Home>Articles>BREAKING: AG Bonta To Face Lawsuit for Manipulating Prop 39 Voter ID Ballot Language Mid-Campaign

BREAKING: AG Bonta To Face Lawsuit for Manipulating Prop 39 Voter ID Ballot Language Mid-Campaign

Assemblyman Carl DeMaio suing AG Bonta for ‘rigging the ballot language for Proposition 39’

By Katy Grimes, July 24, 2026 3:01 pm

24 Jul 2026 3:01 pm

Chairman of Reform California, Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, announced Friday he is filing a lawsuit immediately against State Attorney General Rob Bonta “to force him to restore a FAIR ballot title to our Prop 39 Voter ID Initiative!”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta was credibly accused this week of rigging the ballot language for Proposition 39, the Voter Identification, Citizenship Verification, and Registered Voter List Administration Initiative, just months before the November 2026 election, the Globe reported Tuesday. 

“The initiative, which gathered over a million signatures from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents after more than a year of petition circulation under previously approved wording, now faces what opponents call a last-minute rewrite designed to tilt public perception against it.”

DeMaio, a co-proponent and leader of the Yes on Prop 39 effort, explains:

Without this lawsuit, voters will see a BIASED and FALSE ballot title on Prop 39 that manipulates them into voting NO on Voter ID!

How bad will it be? Well, I want you to read the two different ballot titles for Prop 39 – and judge for yourself:

ORIGINAL FAIR PROP 39 TITLE (September 19, 2025):
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.

REVISED DISHONEST PROP 39 TITLE (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.

Attorney General Rob Bonta is corruptly trying to rig the election against Prop 39 by falsely claiming it prohibits citizens from voting!

Quite the contrary, Prop 39 ensures that every citizen’s vote COUNTS by ensuring that no vote is cancelled out by non-citizens voting or fraudulent votes that are harvested without a voter’s knowledge.

After remaining silent for a few days, AG Bonta released this statement Friday on X in response to the accusations of rigging the ballot language for Proposition 39:

Fact: It is common for ballot titles and summaries to change from the circulating version to the version voters see on the ballot. California law expressly allows these changes to provide further clarity for voters. This year, all nine voter-proposed initiatives had changes, including Prop. 39. California DOJ takes seriously its responsibility to provide accurate and impartial information to inform voters.

Bonta re-wrote all nine voter-proposed ballot initiatives.

“This mid-election manipulation by the democratic Attorney General goes beyond neutral summarization as required by statute, but is reflective of a larger pattern of corruption, Tangipa charged, and called for volunteers and public pressure to ‘save California’ and preserve election integrity,” California Globe’s Executive Editor Megan Barth noted Tuesday. “To those new to California politics, Bonta and his Democratic colleagues have long opposed stricter voter identification measures and transparency initiatives.”

Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Hilton weighed in on Bonta’s flagrant ballot Title change on Prop 39:

BREAKING: The corrupt machine that runs California (for now) has CHANGED the wording on the Voter ID ballot initiative to try and stop people voting for it. Why are these people so terrified of honest elections? We WILL pass Voter ID and we will kick them out in November.

Career Attorney and Attorney General Candidate Michael Gates posted this apropos thought:

And this:

Bonta just changed Prop 39’s ballot title to say it “PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING”, deliberately deceiving voters to kill Voter ID before it even reaches the ballot box.  This is election corruption from the Attorney General himself. California needs a new Attorney General. Vote Gates + YES on Prop 39. #Gates4AG

Tuesday, when Bonta’s ballot title changes were exposed, Gates posted this:

Along with DeMaio, Assemblyman David Tangipa (R-Fresno) blew the lid off Bonta’s dishonest title:

Attorney General Rob Bonta Just RIGGED and MANIPULATED the Voter ID Initiative on the November Ballot

Rob Bonta changed the official language of the Voter ID initiative (Prop 39) in the middle of the election season. This language had been approved for over a year, and millions of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents signed petitions to support it.

Original Language (Approved for over a year):

“ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.” It would require government-issued ID at the polls or the last four digits when voting by mail, provide free voter ID cards, and require annual citizenship verification reports by county.

New Language (Changed by Bonta): “PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING UNLESS THEY PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.” It now invalidates mail ballots without the last four digits on the envelope and prohibits in-person voting without ID. This is blatant manipulation and rigging right in the middle of the election season.

We need your help to fight back and save California. Share this, sign up to volunteer, and comment FIGHT below if you’re in this battle with us.

California Election law under Elections Code § 9051 states “In providing the ballot title and summary, the Attorney General is required to give a true and impartial statement of the purpose of the measure in such language that the ballot title and summary is neither an argument, nor likely to create prejudice, for or against the proposed measure. The Attorney General is required to invite and consider public comment in preparing each ballot title and summary.”

The Globe will continue to monitor DeMaio’s lawsuit.

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