Supported by local Republicans, this bill is part of a broader effort by the conservative party to impose voter restrictions in the United States.
A proposal to require California voters to present an ID when voting will be put to a referendum in November, announced Friday by the state’s election official. Backed by local Republicans, this bill is part of a larger conservative party effort to impose electoral restrictions in the United States, as Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
The measure surpassed the threshold of 874,000 required signatures to organize a referendum, according to a statement from California’s election official, Shirley Weber. It will be put to a vote in the upcoming midterm elections on November 3.
California is one of about 15 American states that do not require voter ID when voting. However, voters must provide proof of identity beforehand during voter registration, pledging to be eligible to vote and American citizens, under penalty of perjury exposing them to legal action. This process ensures the integrity of the system by sending ballots to homes, which contain multiple national and local elections with many checkboxes to mark, by guaranteeing the integrity of the system. Voters can then either drop them off at the polling station or send them back by mail, and it’s the unique number linked to each ballot that is valid during the counting.
Trump and the “SAVE America Act”
But since 2020 and Donald Trump’s narrow defeat against Joe Biden, the billionaire baselessly claims that this election was rigged by massive fraud, casting doubt on the integrity of the entire American electoral system. Despite all evidence, the president regularly portrays the Democratic California as a state where elections are rigged and where thousands of foreign migrants are allowed to vote secretly to favor the left.
No evidence has ever been provided on the existence of electoral fraud during an election in the United States. A few exceptional errors allowing non-citizens to vote have been identified here and there, without affecting the result.
At the national level, Donald Trump has been pushing the “SAVE America Act” for months, a bill currently blocked in the Senate due to lack of majority. The bill would require voters to provide documentation proving their American citizenship to register on the voter rolls – such as a birth certificate or passport – and to present an ID when voting, like a driver’s license. These restrictions would pose barriers to voting, especially for minority voters or married women, as denounced by many associations. According to the Brennan Center, a rights research organization, “more than 21 million Americans do not have access to these documents” and “almost half of Americans do not have a passport.”
