By admin 
Many of California’s most prominent Democratic leaders gathered Tuesday afternoon to rally opposition to a ballot measure that would require voters to show identification at the polls.
Read more Aisha Wahab leads Melissa Hernandez in race to fill Rep. Eric Swalwell’s seat
The news conference, held at the state’s Democratic Party headquarters, was the latest effort by California elected officials to frame Proposition 39 as a costly and dangerous effort propelled by President Donald Trump.
The proposed ballot measure, which will appear on the November ballot, would mandate voters show a government-issued ID if they vote in person or provide the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when casting ballots by mail.
California generally does not require people to show government-issued ID at the polls, though people must attest they are citizens under penalty of perjury and provide personal information to verify their identity when registering to vote. Multiple nonpartisan studies have shown voter fraud is extremely rare across the country.
Democratic elected leaders reiterated past concerns about Prop. 39 including that the measure would disenfranchise voters, cost the state tens of millions of dollars and is part of a national trend of anti-voter laws spearheaded by Republicans. Trump has publicly not commented on the state ballot measure, but he has a long history of false claims of election fraud and has tried to push forward an even more far-reaching election administration bill in Congress.
“It is another voter suppression bill, and because they have been able to succeed in the halls of Congress, Trump and his MAGA allies are trying to bring their fight here to California, and we’re not going to let them,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif. “They know that they’re about to pay a price for their horrible record.”
Other elected leaders in attendance included Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister; Senate President pro Tem Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara; Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Jefferson Park; and state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco; and Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside.
“What you see here today is a show of strength,” said Melanie Ramil, executive director of the California Democratic Party.
Read more Former Rocklin mayor Peter Hill remembered for nearly 30 years of service
Prop. 39 is sponsored by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-Valley Center, who has raised questions about election integrity for years. DeMaio, his conservative following and right-leaning billionaires backing the measure have characterized it as a commonsense, bipartisan effort with broad public support.
The most recent polling on the initiative released by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies last week found that a majority — 51% — plan to vote against Prop. 39, with 42% said they plan on voting “yes” on the measure.
Earlier this month, backers of the measure suffered two legal setbacks on the same day.
In the first case, a Sacramento Superior Court judge rejected supporters’ request to change the ballot title and summary, which they had argued were prejudicial and misleading. A second Sacramento judge rejected backers’ claims, set to appear in a state voter guide, that the measure would make voting easier, more secure and save the state money.
“We are not here just relying on this political argument alone on why Proposition 39 is bad, we have the facts on our side, and the courts have agreed,” Rivas said.
State analysts have estimated Prop. 39 would cost tens of millions of dollars to implement and additional annual spending ranging from tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill new requirements. A component of the ballot measure would require election officials to annually report the percentage of county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.
“In a moment like this, Prop. 39 is presented as a solution, but indeed has greater problems and would be a catastrophic waste of taxpayer dollars, all in an attempt to spread false election conspiracy theories,” Limón said.
Read more Ukrainian bakery-cafe opens in Fair Oaks, serving oversized croissant sandwiches