Voter ID & Citizenship Bill in the California Legislature

There is currently a Bill in the California Legislature aimed at making it harder to vote by requiring government-issued identification and citizenship documentation to vote in the state of California. Learn what it’s about and what you can do.

What is this Bill?

Currently  Scheduled for an April 9^th hearing in the California Assembly Elections Committee, AB25 California Voter ID and Election Integrity Act of 2025, was introduced in December, 2024. You can find the full  text of AB25 here.     It proposes multiple changes to the California Elections Code, including requiring:

• documentation of proof of citizenship to register to vote – to be presented to an Elections Official who verifies citizenship. In many ways it’s similar to the proposed U.S. SAVE Act (H.R.22) currently being fought over in the U.S. Congress.
• documentary proof of citizenship from already-registered voters under certain circumstances (more about that later)
• showing a “valid government-issued form of identification” to vote in person
• writing the ‘last four digits’ of your pre-registered “valid government-issued form of identification” on the outside of your mail-in ballot’s envelope to vote by mail
• Impose many new administrative burdens, including a 72-hour counting time limit, on county Registrar of Voters offices.

What’s the Effect of AB25?

Create A Paperwork Nightmare:  the documents this law would require for proof of citizenship are not always easy (or cheap) to obtain, such as:

• a passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers, and other certified legal documents,
  (BTW, the California “Real ID” Driver’s License and ID card are not legal proof of citizenship)
• for those who’ve ever changed their name (including many married women): all marriage license(s), divorce decree(s), and/or legal name-change documentation are also required for proof of citizenship
• for EVERY Californian - every time they vote - showing a separate “valid government-issued form of identification”
  • or writing the last 4 digits of your government ID on the outside of your vote-by-mail envelope for the world to see 
    (not sure how the ROV gets that number)

Limit opportunities for Voter Registration: Since AB25 requires an Election Official to verify citizenship documents,

• the League of Women Voters and other groups’ voter registration tables and drives would no longer be allowed
• Online registration is not possible
• Even hanging registration for current voters might, in some instances, require in-person proof-of-citizenship documentation

Increase Unjustified Purges of Registered Voters: AB25 Section 5  Mandates periodic random audits of the “elector qualifications” of people who are already registered.

• Anyone already registered could be dropped from the Voter Rolls until they provide certified proof of citizenship. Section 5 of AB25 mandates a periodic random sample review of “qualified electors.” Since Californians have never previously been required to provide citizenship documentation when registering to vote, this will put a serious burden on everyone who wishes to remain registered.

In other states, this has forced voters who had been registered and voted for years to provide citizenship documentation, often on short notice before an election. Some may find that difficult and costly to obtain. (for an example of what happened in Arizona, read this)

Burden Administration of Elections: AB25 imposes significant burdens and costs on state and local election officials, who are already underfunded and understaffed.

• AB25 Section 14 requires that the counting of all ballots (with a few exceptions) in a county be finished within 72 hours after the polls close.
  That’s 3 days.
  Current law says counting must start no later 2 days following the election, and continue for a max of 30 days after election day.
  County election offices may not be staffed or have the facilities to handle this ten-fold cut in counting time.
  

Stealthily Cripple Vote-by-Mail: In two separate clauses AB25 slips in a way to stop the automatic mailing of vote-by-mail ballots.

• AB25, in sections 5 and 14, imposes tight limits of performance so that If, in any statewide election, either:
  • a county fails to count all ballots within 72 hours after the polls closing (except for a few special ballot cases),
  • Or If the State Auditor determines from any random audit that less than 98% of the people listed on a county’s roster of voters are ‘qualified electors’ in that county,
• Then: in the next statewide election, the registered voters of that county will not automatically receive their vote-by-mail ballots. Instead, any voter who wants to vote by mail must individually request a vote-by-mail ballot. No notification of the voters that this needs to be done  is required.

Contact your Legislators and tell them how you feel about AB25

The case for this bill is based on intimidation, hostility, and lies about widespread voter fraud. The bill threatens to block thousands of eligible Californians from voting simply because they lack the means or the time to find and provide records that have never before been required.

Feel free to use your own words to express your own opinion, but here’s an example:

Who are my State Legislators?

• State Assembly for District 26, (for both Sunnyvale and Cupertino):
  • Patrick Ahrens
  • Email: https://a26.asmdc.org/contact
    
    
• State Senator for District 10 (for Cupertino):
  • Aisha Wahab
  • Email: https://sd10.senate.ca.gov/contact
    
    
• State Senator for District 13 (for Sunnyvale):
  • Josh Becker
  • Email: https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/contact
    
    
• If you don’t live in Cupertino or Sunnyvale, find your representatives at https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/