Guest Opinion | Assemblymember John Harabedian: Prop 39 is an Expensive Answer to a Problem California Doesn’t Have

As chair of the Legislature’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee, I spend a lot of time asking a simple question about government programs: does this work, and is it worth what it costs? Proposition 39 fails both tests.

Prop 39 would amend California’s constitution to require government-issued ID to vote in person and the last four digits of an ID number on every mail ballot envelope, checked against your registration before your ballot is counted. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates Prop 39 could cost state and local governments tens of millions to low hundreds of millions of dollars every year. That’s money counties would spend year after year, with no end date. Every dollar spent administering a new layer of paperwork is a dollar not spent on schools, public safety, or the services our communities desperately need.

Prop 39’s backers tried to tell voters otherwise, and struck out. In their official ballot argument, they claimed that the measure would “save millions of dollars each election.” In August, a Sacramento judge ordered that claim be removed from the state voter guide, as it was “objectively untrue,” and directly contradicted the LAO’s findings.

The measure is also vague in its implementation. Prop 39 directs election officials to verify every voter’s citizenship using “government data,” but the federal databases officials would likely rely on are full of errors and outdated information. A voter’s name may appear differently from one record to the next because of a marriage or a simple spelling mistake, and a naturalized citizen’s status may not be current in every system. The California Budget & Policy Center warns that citizenship checks like these are nearly guaranteed to flag some citizens as noncitizens and could remove them from the rolls.

Prop 39 attempts to address a problem we don’t have. California already verifies eligibility when you register to vote, which requires an ID number or the last four digits of your Social Security number, and our elections are extremely secure. Prop 39 wouldn’t close a meaningful gap– it would add a second layer of checks on voters the state has already confirmed are eligible.

I’ve served in both local and state government, and have seen from both positions how much work goes into running elections well. Our county election officials already do that work carefully. Prop 39 would hand them an expensive, undefined mandate with no money attached.

Protecting the integrity of our elections matters. But good policy should solve a real problem, spend public money wisely, and be clear about how it works. Prop 39 does none of those things. I’m voting no, and I urge Californians to do the same.

California Assemblymember John Harabedian represents Altadena and Pasadena