Voters will decide mail-ballot identification measures in California, Colorado and Nevada

California measure backer says four-digit verification is intended to replace ballot signatures

Three-state comparison. Advocates for greater voter identification requirements are pursuing a mandate in some states to place a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number on mail-in ballots. Variations of the voter ID proposals will be decided in California, Colorado and Nevada in the November midterm elections. Conservative activists in the three states collected petition signatures to bypass Democratic-led legislatures and place the issue directly before voters.

The Colorado and Nevada voter ID measures are citizen initiatives. Republican-led legislatures also referred voter ID amendments to the November ballot in Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio. When voting by mail, most states already require a voter’s signature for a ballot to count. Only Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico and Ohio require some sort of government-issued identification number with mail-in ballots.

California’s proposal. California Proposition 39 would require a government-issued ID to vote in person or the last four digits of that identification number to vote by mail. Nearly 90% of California’s ballots were cast by mail in the August primary, when more than 52,000 ballots — less than 1% of the total — were rejected for nonmatching or missing signatures, according to the secretary of state’s office.

The proposed constitutional amendment does not directly repeal California’s current signature requirement. Carl DeMaio, a Republican state Assembly member whose organization Reform California backed the voter ID initiative, said the intent was for four-digit verification to replace it. “If California gets this done through citizens, maybe it will shame the politicians into getting this going in a moderate and reasonable and bipartisan way nationwide,” DeMaio said.

Donald Trump has not endorsed the California proposition. Opponents contend it is similar to a bill he backed in Congress to require a photo ID to vote, or a photocopy for ballots returned by mail. “Prop 39 is just another Trump power grab that is intended to make voting harder, less secure and more expensive for Californians,” said Brittany Stonesifer, a voting rights attorney at Common Cause California.

About 7 in 10 registered voters nationally favor requiring all voters to provide valid photo identification at their voting place in order to vote, according to an October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Support was stronger among Republicans, though a majority of Democratic voters also favored a voter ID requirement.

Other identification and election measures. The voter ID questions are among about 30 questions on November ballots affecting state policies on voting and elections. The roughly 30 questions account for about one in five of all state ballot measures nationwide. Some voter ID measures mirror policies President Donald Trump has pushed unsuccessfully at the national level and build off a Republican narrative that noncitizen voting is a problem, although data indicates such voting is rare.

Several measures address changes to congressional voting districts as part of a national redistricting battle. Trump urged GOP-led states to redistrict to try to win additional House seats. Other measures could change how primaries are conducted, make it harder for voters to amend their state constitutions or, in Missouri, make it harder for lawmakers to change measures that voters approve.

Together, the measures highlight a long-running debate about who can participate in elections and how voting can remain accessible and secure. “Ballot measures have become a battle zone for the future of American democracy, including direct democracy itself,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a group that backs progressive ballot issues.

Citizenship measures. Ballot measures in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West Virginia would reinforce current election practices limiting voting to U.S. citizens. Since 2018, at least 15 states have adopted similar measures, including all eight states where they appeared on the ballot in 2024 and Texas last year.

Many critics argue that the measures are largely symbolic and unnecessary because voting by noncitizens is rare and already forbidden in most states. No state constitutions explicitly allow noncitizens to vote. Some municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, do allow voting by noncitizens in some local elections, such as for school board and city council. States need to act because the nation’s founders “gave the states the rights to determine who can vote,” said Becky Arps, research director for Americans for Citizen Voting.

Primary changes. Two Massachusetts ballot measures could reshape state elections. One amendment would scrap separate party primaries in favor of an open primary in which the top two vote recipients, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Another would allow people to register to vote on the same day as the election instead of under the current 10-day-in-advance deadline.

Alaska voters are again being asked whether to repeal a system of open primaries and ranked choice voting. A similar measure narrowly failed two years ago.

Redistricting. Republican lawmakers in Missouri passed new congressional districts for the midterm elections after Trump urged GOP-led states to redistrict to try to win additional House seats. The Missouri Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court both blocked the new map from being used in the November election because of a referendum petition. Voters will now decide whether to uphold or reject the new districts. If approved, the map could be used in the 2028 election.

Maryland voters will consider a redistricting amendment backed by Democratic state lawmakers that could pave the way for a new U.S. House map ahead of the 2028 election. Proponents’ campaign signs urge a “yes” vote as a means to “stop Trump.” In Colorado, where some Democrats also want to redistrict, a ballot initiative backed by a conservative group would prohibit any mid-decade redistricting from favoring one political party. It would require approval from both an existing independent commission and the state Supreme Court.

Initiative thresholds and protections. Proposed amendments in North Dakota and South Dakota would make it harder to amend their state constitutions by requiring 60% approval from voters instead of a simple majority. A similar 60% threshold is proposed in Utah for future citizen initiatives that raise taxes. All were referred to the ballot by Republican-led legislatures.

Several states already have supermajority requirements for certain ballot measures, including 60% thresholds to pass constitutional amendments in Florida and tax initiatives in Arizona. Two years ago, amendments to legalize recreational marijuana and create abortion rights both received majority support but failed because of Florida’s supermajority threshold.

A Missouri amendment proposed by a citizens group would make it harder for lawmakers to change voter-approved citizen initiatives by requiring revisions to receive an 80% vote in the state House and Senate. It comes after the Republican-led Legislature last year repealed a paid sick leave law approved by voters and referred a new constitutional amendment to the November ballot to reverse voter-approved abortion rights. A Montana measure would make the citizen-initiative process a fundamental right, while a Colorado measure would require ballot questions to be written “in plain language at no more than an eighth-grade reading level.”

Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed to this report.