Voter ID will be on the November ballot. A new poll shows how Californians feel

Kate Wolffe, The Sacramento Bee on Apr 27, 2026

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A majority of California voters support the idea of requiring voters to show identification at the polls, according to a new UC Berkeley poll.

Of the 5,962 registered voters who participated in the poll conducted by Institute of Governmental Studies, 56% of respondents approved of a prospective voter ID ballot measure when first presented with the proposal, but that number went down to 39% after they were given more context about its sponsor and opposition.

The initiative, which qualified for the ballot on Friday, is sponsored by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-Valley Center, who began the effort in July 2025. If the measure passes, voters would need to provide government-issued ID at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail, and elections officials would need to annually report the percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified. Democratic leaders have signaled opposition to voter ID, saying voter fraud is not an issue in California, and there shouldn’t be more barriers to casting a ballot.

DeMaio, an outspoken firebrand who has raised questions about election integrity in California for years, has characterized it as a “common-sense and bipartisan way to restore the trust and confidence all voters should have in our election system.”

California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber weighed in on the measure on Monday during an event in Sacramento.

“I think it’s a waste of money and a waste of time, because we do all those things, and in California, it will be basically a restatement of what we currently do,” she said. Although California generally does not require people to show government-issued ID at the polls, people registering to vote are required to attest they are citizens under penalty of perjury.

Weber said the more concerning threat is President Donald Trump’s efforts to pass an iteration of the SAVE Act, which would require voters to prove they are citizens, show photo ID to vote, and introduce new penalties and requirements for elections officials. The latest effort has stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Poll finds some concern about illegal voting

When asked about whether they feel illegal voting is a problem in California, 43% of respondents to the IGS poll characterized it as somewhat or majorly problematic, and 49% said it was not much of a problem or no problem at all.

Studies show voter fraud is rare across the country. A database compiled by the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation identifies 71 cases of voter fraud in California since 1982.

If voter ID was implemented in California, pollster Matt Barreto said the people who are more likely to be impacted would be people with lower socioeconomic statuses who don’t have up-to-date identification or ready access to documents like their birth certificates or social security numbers.

“Folks who don’t own a car, folks who never travel, they don’t have to have a Real ID — it’s not their life. But these folks are registered and they’re eligible to vote,” he said during Monday’s event.

Barreto, who is the Faculty Director for the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said his team estimates there are at least a million current registered voters in California that do not have the proper credentials to vote if the measure is approved.

The IGS poll found that a bigger issue for people, over voter fraud, is attempts by the federal government and FBI to interfere with the administration of elections in California. Sixty percent of respondents identified that as somewhat or majorly problematic.

Several legislative efforts are currently underway to keep the federal government from interfering in California elections.

Pollsters also drew parallels Monday between the Voter ID ballot initiative and last year’s fight over Proposition 50, which proposed re-drawing California’s congressional maps in response to Trump advocating for Texas to redistrict. They said early polling mimics that of the early polling on Prop. 50, with more people backing Democrats when they hear about the partisan nature of the debate.

“My hunch would be that the campaign would be likely to play out in a similar way,” said political scientist Eric Schickler.

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