RIVERSIDE (CNS) - The signatures of well over 100,000 Riverside County voters who added their names to a petition calling for a statewide ballot initiative that would require identification before voting in California were submitted to the county Office of the Registrar of Voters on Monday.
"Our democracy relies on confidence in our elections, but Californians' trust is fading," according to a statement by the nonprofit Californians for Voter ID. "Voters are concerned about election security, thanks in part to issues like unchecked ballot harvesting, lack of citizenship verification and inconsistent signature reviews."
The organization submitted a petition containing 130,704 signatures collected throughout Riverside County over the previous four months. The petition was received Monday morning at the front office of the registrar's headquarters on Gateway Drive in Riverside.
Among those on hand to deliver it were Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, and state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach.
Californians for Voter ID said just over 1.3 million signatures were collected during the statewide petition drive. Signatures were obtained in each of the state's 58 counties, and all of those registrars' offices this week will be receiving the individual petitions pertinent to their jurisdictions.
Individual registrars will have eight days to validate the legitimacy of the signatures. After the raw count, the vetted petitions will be forwarded to the California Secretary of State's Office, where random sampling and additional checks will take place to validate the signatures. If officials determine it's likely that less than 95% of the submitted signatures are valid, the petitions will be rejected.
If they aren't rejected, state law specifies officials will have 131 days to craft the ballot language based on the initiative, which Californians for Voter ID said should be placed on the November general election ballot.
If the measure is approved by voters, it would be codified in state law with two requirements -- that every person casting a ballot in the future first proves his or her identity via a driver's license or other standard means, and that anyone casting a ballot be confirmed to be a U.S. citizen.
"These basic safeguards will not hinder legal voting, but guarantee each valid vote is protected," according to Californians for Voter ID.
Riverside County has been at the center of controversy over ballot collection and processing going back two decades, beginning with grassroots efforts that succeeded in persuading state officials to re-certify electronic voting units.
Since that time, numerous issues have surfaced, sometimes as a result of the county Office of the Registrar's own procedures, and sometimes due a seeming lack of transparency. The county Board of Supervisors has implemented multiple reform efforts, typically following the establishment of ad-hoc committees to study matters.
Civic activists continue to regularly appear before the board to express concerns or ask for changes.
More details on Californians for Voter ID's initiative is available at voteridca.org/.