California has rightfully prided itself on its commitment to helping citizens vote. That’s in jeopardy because of a MAGA-led ballot proposal, Proposition 39. Despite President Trump’s pushing Prop 39 and its suspect cast of supporters, polling in California shows a close decision. I get the impulse to oppose fraud—in all its forms. I made my career calling out big banks for mortgage fraud, and then went to Congress where I crusaded against corruption with my whiteboard. Across party lines, we should all fight fraud (wouldn’t it be nice if our President and his appointees stopped committing fraud; looking at you, Kimberly Guilfoyle 🙄). Of course, voting fraud is wrong, and It is a real problem in some democracies in the world. BUT NOT America’s and NOT California’s. I’ve seen firsthand in close Congressional elections how carefully ballots are scrutinized to ensure eligibility. The Orange County Registrar of Voters lists the 125 checks that it takes to ensure election integrity: https://ocvote.gov/security-measures-list. The office even gives ballot processing tours so Californians can see for themselves exactly how ballots are verified. https://ocvote.gov/community This is a terrific transparency process that I hope other election officials will offer. So Proposition 39 is not solving a problem. What it would do it make worse the very real problems created by Trump’s lies about voting fraud, especially vote by mail and voting by minorities. Proposition 39 essentially takes Trump’s bullshit and would turn it into a terrible amendment to the California constitution. Look, the proposal sounds straightforward on first glance. Proposition 39 would require voters to either show government-issued ID every time they vote in person at the polls or to put part of their Social Security numbers on the outside of their ballot envelopes by mail. The problem is reality, which is where many seemingly innocuous government policies end up creating harms. Not every U.S. citizen has a government identification that matches their current name and address (heck, given my son’s initial efforts at learning to drive, I thought he might not have a license by this November. He does; buckle up out there!). Four in 10 voters ages 18-24 do not have a driver’s license. One in five people with disabilities do not have a drivers license. Other voters have divorced or married and not yet changed their IDs, have moved frequently with multiple addresses, or have another small discrepancy. (One of my voting-age kids has a middle name that is spelled differently on his social security card and his passport because my ex-husband had sloppy handwriting in the hospital room; ask me how long this has been on my to-do list to try to fix.) It’s just not true that as long as you are a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote, you’ll be fine on Election Day. If Proposition 39 were to become law, a citizen’s rightful eligibility to vote could be preempted by a recently expired ID, a forgotten wallet (these kids just use ApplePay on their phones!), a middle initial mismatch, unclear rules about what government IDs count (does a public school ID card work?), and faulty “non-citizen” databases for verification that we know are rife with errors. Enforcing such rules would inevitably produce long lines and uneven enforcement. Already California sometimes sees lines that stretch for hours; I’ve seen this firsthand in every election in the last decade at UC Irvine. Turning voters away isn’t just about partisanship; sometimes it’s about an election volunteer who decides to overzealously —and unlawfully — enforce rules. As a poll watcher in a deep blue pocket of Massachusetts, I personally saw election officials invent reasons to deny voters like “you cannot bring a stroller in here” and “I cannot find your name”—without asking for the spelling to even try. Finally, as a lifelong consumer advocate, I cannot overstate the risks of requiring voters to put the last four digits of their social security numbers on the OUTSIDE of their ballots. With those four-digits, a home address, and an internet connection, identity theft is easy peasy. Seniors who are warned repeatedly by the Social Security Administration to never disclose their social security number to a stranger would simply omit the digits, and have their mail-in ballots tossed. Our democracy today has real challenges: big money in politics, relatively low voting rates, rampant gerrymandering, and more. The election security risks that America faces do not come from individuals voting who are not eligible. The real election security risks are from foreign interference or hacking—and even election-denying Republicans, as I saw firsthand in the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Proposition 39 isn't about election integrity. It’s yet another play by Trump to make voting harder, sow distrust about our democracy, and create chaos. Don’t let Trump corrupt California’s elections. Vote NO on Prop 39. Paid for by Katie Porter for Governor 2026 FFPC #1479597
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