California voters will be able to decide whether residents must show ID to vote, after a Republican-spearheaded initiative received sufficient signatures for the November election.
Whether the initiative passes, particularly in a year where anti-Trump midterm sentiment will be at a fever pitch, is up in the air. But in a state where the Democratic Party has held a long-term lock on electoral power, statewide popular-vote measures remain one of the few areas where conservatives can still make an impact.
A recent California poll showed that 44% of voters were in favor of requiring voter ID, 45% were against it, and 12% were undecided. Democrats will undoubtedly attempt to pump up the opposition with strained analogies to Jim Crow and hyperventilating about disenfranchising minority voters. This line of thinking, and courts siding with it to strike down similar laws, is not new.
California Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, whose group, Reform California, gathered signatures for the measure, mentioned that it differed from the SAVE America federal bill because it does not ban mail-in voting. DeMaio stated that “[…] voters of all political backgrounds like the convenience of mail-in ballots.” Ideally, though, both California and the U.S. as a whole will continue to move away from making voting as convenient as possible, both through voter ID laws and rolling back mail-in voting. There is no reason why anyone who wants to vote can’t put in the basic effort to provide identification and show up at a polling place, or request an absentee ballot if they have good reason.
For all their high-minded rhetoric about saving democracy, of course, Democrats’ stance on voter ID is entirely based on their electoral prospects. This is the same party that constantly delivers lectures on the “tyranny of the majority” and regularly uses the courts to shoot down voter-passed initiatives it doesn’t like. California Democrats are unconcerned with ensuring a fair vote — they’re intent on blocking any law that would serve as a minor obstacle to their Hispanic and black voting bloc.
It’ll take a long road for California to even become a swing state, but the voter ID initiative is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, voters take advantage of this opportunity to put a dent in the state’s one-party rule.
