California Sen. Alex Padilla champions efforts to defeat proposed voter ID laws

Haley Parsley, The Sacramento Bee on Jul 9, 2026

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A committee that’s challenging a proposed voter ID law in California has already received a high-profile endorsement.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who has been a longtime advocate for the expansion of voting rights, threw his weight behind the group Thursday morning.

Californians for Voting Rights, a committee backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, opposes Proposition 39. The measure would require voters to verify their identities using government-issued identification, like a driver’s license or social security number, each time they cast a ballot.

The proposition, Padilla said, echoes other voter identification laws that have sprung up around the country as President Donald Trump pushes for heightened election security laws.

“Trump and his MAGA allies will do anything to hold on to power because they know their failing agenda is going to cost them at the polls,” the senator said in a statement.

Conservatives have faced a series of losses as they’ve sought to tighten the nation’s voting rules. The U.S. Senate has so far refused to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to verify their citizenship. The Supreme Court dealt an additional blow in late June, ruling that states may count mail-in ballots that arrive after the polls close, as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day.

Proposition 39 brings the national battle over election security to California. Advocates associated with Californians for Voting Rights say it’s an attempt at voter suppression that would hit Black and Latino Californians, women, people with disabilities and other underrepresented communities hardest.

“California’s elections are already safe and secure, and Prop 39 is a costly and unnecessary measure that would create new barriers for eligible voters trying to make their voices heard,” said Jenny Farrell, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of California, in a statement.

“This proposal would especially harm millions of Californians whose identification documents may not perfectly match their current information - including the many women who have changed their names after marriage - creating needless confusion and obstacles at the ballot box,” Farrell said.

State Senator Tony Strickland, who represents Huntington and Newport Beach, said those concerns were baseless.

“It’s a stupid argument,” Strickland told the Sacramento Bee. “You need an ID to get on a plane, you need an ID to get medicine…I’ve never heard a married woman say they couldn’t get on a plane because they didn’t have an ID.”

Strickland, who helped author Prop. 39, said the proposed law is popular among Californians. It’d be a simple change, he said, that would clean up voter rolls and strengthen the public’s faith in election outcomes.

“It’s not like we’re reinventing the wheel,” he said. “More than half this country has voter identification laws.”

He referenced an incident earlier this year, when a California woman admitted she’d cast several ballots on behalf of her pet.

“When a dog votes in the last couple elections in Orange County, you know you have a problem,” he said.

California voters are divided on voter ID laws, according to a UC Berkeley poll published in April. Of the 5,962 registered voters who participated, 56% of respondents initially approved of a prospective voter ID ballot measure when first presented with the proposal.

That number decreased to 37% when participants were told that the measure’s supporters believed it was necessary to prevent fraud, while its opponents believed it could result in citizens being denied the right to vote.

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