The signatures of tens of thousands of Riverside County residents on a petition calling for a statewide ballot initiative to require identification before voting were submitted Monday to the county Office of the Registrar of Voters.
Californians for Voter ID’s petition, backed by 130,704 signatures collected throughout Riverside County during the last four months, was received Monday morning at the front office of the registrar’s headquarters, 2720 Gateway Drive in Riverside.
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, Assemblywoman Leticia Castillo, R-Corona, and state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, were among the voter ID supporters who delivered the signatures.
Californians for Voter ID collected more than 1.3 million signatures statewide in each of California’s 58 counties, according to the group led by DeMaio. All county registrars’ offices this week will receive petitions.
Group spokesman José Hernández said signature totals for the remaining counties will be available after individual counties receive petitions.
Registrars will have eight days to validate the legitimacy of the signatures. After the initial count, counties will send vetted petitions to the California Secretary of State’s Office. State officials will do random sampling and take additional steps to validate the signatures. If less than 95% of the signatures are deemed valid, the state will reject a petition.
For approved petitions, state law gives officials 131 days to develop the ballot language based on the initiative, which according to Californians for Voter ID should be placed on the ballot for the November general election.
If voters enact the measure, state law would require every person casting a ballot to verify his or her identity with a driver’s license or other standard photo ID and confirm that he or she is a United States citizen.
“These basic safeguards will not hinder legal voting, but guarantee each valid vote is protected,” according to Californians for Voter ID.
“Support for voter ID laws transcends party lines — it’s not a Republican or Democratic issue,” group Chairman Julie Luckey said in a statement. “Polls consistently show that majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents favor these measures. Voter ID is simply a common-sense policy. California needs to modernize its elections to align with the vast majority of the world’s democracies. While our state leads in so many areas, it lags behind on this issue. It’s time for California to catch up and enact voter ID laws.”
Opponents say rather than safeguarding democracy, voter ID is unnecessary because in-person fraud is rare, and the burdensome requirement targets members of minority groups who might have a more difficult time acquiring photo identification.
“Many Americans do not have one of the forms of government-issued photo identification that state laws list as acceptable for voting,” according to the ACLU. “These voters are disproportionately low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Such voters more frequently cannot afford or cannot obtain the underlying documents that are a prerequisite to obtaining government-issued photo ID card.”
Riverside County is no stranger to voting controversy, starting with grassroots efforts dating back to the early 2000s that succeeded in convincing state officials to recertify electronic voting machines.
Since then a number of issues have come up, sometimes as a result of the county voting registrar’s procedures and sometimes because of an apparent lack of transparency. The county Board of Supervisors has implemented multiple reform efforts, typically following the establishment of ad-hoc committees to study matters.
Civic activists regularly attend Board of Supervisors meetings to express concerns or ask for changes.
Californians for Voter ID reported that January poll by Public Opinion Strategies poll showed 79% support for citizenship verification and 68% for voter ID, including 93% of Republicans, 70% of Independents and 52% of Democrats. In late April 2025, a UC Berkeley IGS poll found that 71% of registered voters support a proof of citizenship requirement, including 95% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats and 71% of all other affiliations or no party preference.
Last month the Huntington Beach City Council opted to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a state appeals court ruling that blocked the city’s voter ID law.
“Identification is required to participate in most adult endeavors in this country,” Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon said in a statement. “Therefore, voter ID should be required for the fundamental, time-honored sacred basis of a free society — elections.”
More information on the Californians for Voter ID initiative is online at voteridca.org.
Updated March 4, 2026, 12:45 p.m.
