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BALLOT BATTLE: California is preparing to enact a new law to prevent cities from crafting their own voter identification laws. And that could once again place the state in the crosshairs of the new Trump administration, just as he takes over.
Now-Rep. Dave Min authored the bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, in response to a Huntington Beach ballot measure requiring voters to show ID at the polls. Currently, Californians are required to have their IDs verified when they register to vote, but they don’t need to present them when they go to the polls.
Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber filed a legal challenge against the local measure that’s still ongoing. Meanwhile, Huntington Beach officials insist the community’s charter city status means the new state law won’t apply to them.
Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against Min’s bill, criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom for signing it during a Bloomberg interview in October, saying, “Of course you have to show voter ID. The only reason you wouldn’t do [it] is because they want to cheat.”
He referenced the bill again in an early November Truth Social post coming after “Newscum.”
“As an ‘AGENT’ for the United States of America on Voting & Elections, I will be DEMANDING THAT VOTER I.D., AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP, ARE A NECESSARY PART AND COMPONENT OF THE VOTING PROCESS!” Trump wrote.
Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation said she’s curious to see how this tension between state and federal election oversight plays out.
There’s usually an intense focus on voting systems directly after an election, Alexander said.
The federal government has previously been moved to act in response to problems with voter registration, ballot-counting or election systems, she said. For example, Congress passed laws in the 1980s requiring states to provide absentee ballots for overseas members of the military and to make polling places accessible for elderly and disabled Americans. Lawmakers also passed legislation in 1993 requiring states to allow voters to register at departments of motor vehicles.
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"i will be interested to see how that tug of war takes shape between what the federal political leaders want to see happen, versus what they’re capable of affecting,” she said.
Voter ID laws aside, Alexander would like to see efforts to accelerate California’s vote-counting process, as “it does a disservice to voters when they are denied the ability to know who’s going to represent them or lead them.”
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin — a former Santa Cruz County elections official who has chaired the Assembly Elections Committee — previously authored a 2023 bill requiring local governments to use machines to count ballots. She’s now supporting early-stage legislation from Assemblymember Marc Berman to speed up California vote-counting, though he’s still in the process of determining exactly how to help counties pick up their pace.
A different Pellerin bill taking effect in January will prevent candidates from filing to run for two different offices simultaneously, in response to now-Rep. Vince Fong ending up on the ballot for both the House and the state Assembly.
And she’s continuing her push to add the state to the Electronic Registration Information Center, an organization made up of state elections officials that help maintain accurate voter rolls. (A bill Pellerin authored to make this happen died in the Senate Appropriations Committee this year.)
When asked if she’s concerned about Trump’s rhetoric, the assemblymember said, “every day there’s something new that comes out of the new administration’s positions and ideas.” But she maintains the state’s system is secure and effective.
“California has really good laws that are in place to prevent voter fraud and really outstanding laws to ensure that all voters have excessive access to voting,” she said.