PRESS RELEASE
PR26-53
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2026
Contact: sospress@sos.ca.gov
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., Announces New Measure Eligible for November 2026 General Election Ballot
Establishes additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements. Initiative constitutional amendment.
Sacramento, Calif. – California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., announced that an initiative became eligible for the November 3, 2026, General Election ballot on April 24, 2026.
In order to become eligible for the ballot, the initiative needed 874,641 valid petition signatures, which is equal to eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2022 General Election.
A measure can become eligible via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects that the number of valid signatures is greater than 110 percent of the required number. The initiative needed at least 962,106 projected valid signatures to become eligible by random sampling, and it has exceeded that threshold today.
On June 25, 2026, the Secretary of State will certify the initiative as qualified for the November 3, 2026, General Election ballot, unless it is withdrawn by the proponent prior to certification pursuant to Elections Code section 9604(b).
The Attorney General's official title and summary of the measure is as follows:
ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Under current law, when registering to vote, individuals must state under penalty of perjury that they are United States citizens and provide information to verify their identity (e.g., birthdate, driver’s license or Social Security number). This measure would amend the California Constitution to further require that:
-voters present government-issued identification at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail;
-the State provide voter identification cards on request; and
-elections officials annually report percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.
Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: One-time state and local government costs in the tens of millions of dollars to prepare for implementation of the measure. Increased annual state and local government costs potentially ranging in the tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill new requirements related to elections administration. (25-0007A1.)
The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1984 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 25-0007A1.
The proponents of the measure are Carl DeMaio, Tony Strickland, and Donald J. DiCostanzo. The address for the proponents is c/o Carl DeMaio, P.O. Box 27227, San Diego, CA 92198. The proponents may also be contacted at carl@carldemaio.com and (619) 806-0698.
For more information about how an initiative qualifies for the ballot in California, visit https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/how-qualify-initiative/.
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