California Voter Proof of Identity AND Citizenship: How?

(Imagen 4)

This post provides an update on election integrity, which I haven’t discussed since March.

The update? Assemblymember Carl DeMaio wants to put a proposition on the 2026 California ballot that achieves three purposes:

• “[R]equire the state to verify proof of citizenship when a person registers to vote.”
• Require voters to “provide identifications at the polls.”
• “Those who vote through mail-in ballots would have to give the last four digits of a government-issued ID such as a Social Security number.”

Let’s go through these…backwards.

Mail-in ballots

The third proposal about authenticating mail-in ballots is silly. 

The mere fact that someone knows the last four digits of a Social Security Number does NOT prove that the person is the valid holder of the Social Security Number in question. 

Frankly, I’m surprised that DHS released Leonardo Garcia Venegas just because he knew a Social Security Number. Of course, I’m also surprised that they determined his REAL ID was fake.

In-person ballots

Which brings us to the second proposal about requiring a government ID for in-person voting. 

I’ve already addressed why this is silly. The short version? Election precinct workers have neither the equipment nor the training to tell whether a government ID is real or fake.

Voter registration…and re-registration

That only leaves the first one, proving citizenship at voter registration. This one is technically feasible; the feds do it all the time. The California Secretary of State could merely adapt the federal I-9 process to the state level; I’m sure Janice Kephart and her company ZipID would love to help the state with that.

Especially since the requirement for election integrity dictates that all of California’s existing voters would need to re-register to prove their citizenship.

All 22+ million of them.

Because if you DO NOT require all California voters to re-register, the whole exercise is pointless.