CA Election Leader Shirley Weber claims that plenty has already been done “to protect the integrity of our elections.”
California Assemblyman Carl DeMaio plans to exercise the Citizens Initiative Process to mandate Voter ID measures statewide after AB 25, which pushed for proof of citizenship and a government-issued ID when registering and voting, was killed in the State Assembly on April 9.
“It is all BULL****!” shouted Assemblyman DeMaio over X/Twitter. He spoke to devotees to his bill, the California Voter ID and Election Integrity Act, after the hearing at the State Capitol. “They don’t care about the health of our democracy…This issue is common sense.”
Under the auspices of Chair Gail Pellerin, the State Elections Committee heard the bill mid-morning. The San Diego rep passed around a detailed audit on the 2022 midterm elections. The Transparency Foundation reported that 56% of ballot signatures rejected that year, among other alarming discrepancies. DeMaio underlined that AB 25 is dealing “with a growing cancer on the democracy here in California,” insisting that the state call it what it is, fraud.
Surprising no one, Democrats ultimately croaked AB 25, despite Assemblyman DeMaio handing them plenty of evidence of Californians’ lack of confidence in the electoral system currently. He referred to a January memorandum that recorded “68% of Californians support a voter ID, with a majority of voters (51%) STRONGLY supporting it.”
Rep. DeMaio brought on a few testimonial speakers, among them was Clovis Republican David Tangipa. He expressed his discomfort with his talking point that minorities are not “smart enough to meet the standards [asked]” as someone of Polynesian roots. “I do not believe in the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Chair Pellerin was immovable, however, and mercilessly motioned to reject the bill. She accused Republicans of “lying to the public [into thinking] voter fraud is rampant,” and argued that election skeptics should “consider resigning” themselves.
Democratic State Secretary Shirley Weber had earlier parroted a similar denouncing of what she has called “inaccurate claims” of voter fraud. As far as she could tell, “California has several security protocols designed to protect the integrity of our elections.”
A tough break for Republicans in Sacramento to be sure, but election transparency has seen more local wins as of late. A Vote ID law in Huntington Beach being challenged by State Attorney General Rob Bonta, who found it “unlawful”, was upheld by the Orange County Superior Court on April 7. Shasta County also passed a Voter ID ordinance in February.
“We gave politicians in this building an opportunity to do the right thing,” lamented DeMaio, whose opinion has been reinforced that Democrats “want continued distrust in our elections, they seem to thrive on voters giving up hope.”
Unfazed and eager to keep fighting for justice, DeMaio and other groups are now set out to collect 1 million signatures to put the voter integrity initiative on the 2026 ballot. As soon as 20,000 volunteers can be committed to the cause, they will have up to 180 days to collect the minimum required signatures for next year’s midterm elections.
