California Still Needs Prop 39

California already knows who is supposed to vote. Only citizens. Only living people. Only the person whose name is on the roll. What the state has refused to do is check.

Kyle McClay | September 7, 2026

California already knows who is supposed to vote. Only citizens. Only living people. Only the person whose name is on the roll. What the state has refused to do is check.

That is the whole fight over Proposition 39.

On November 3, voters can close the gap between the law as written and the law as practiced. Prop 39 requires a government-issued ID at the polls, the last four digits of a designated government ID number on a mail ballot, a free state voter ID card for anyone who needs one, and a real citizenship-verification process using data the state already collects. It also forces public reporting so counties cannot hide how much of the roll they have actually checked.

None of that is exotic. Thirty-six states already require some form of voter ID. Most of those states require photo ID. California is one of the last large holdouts. We ask for ID to board a plane, pick up a controlled prescription, cash a check, and rent a car. We do not ask for it at the one transaction that decides who writes the laws.

That is not generosity. It is negligence dressed up as virtue.

The opposition line is familiar: this is “voter suppression.” It was the same line in Georgia, in Indiana, in Texas,........

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