Elon Musk on California Law Banning Voter ID: ‘To Make Voting Fraud Unprovable’

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk slammed a new California law Friday that aims to prohibit local authorities from requiring photo identification (ID) when voting, saying that it had been passed “to make voting fraud unprovable.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the law in September.

The law was partly a reaction to an attempt by the City of Huntingon Beach, one of the last conservative bastions in California, to require voter ID in the 2024 election. Voters in the city passed Measure 1, requiring voter ID, in March 2024, but it does not take effect until 2026. The law, SB 1174, includes a finding that voting is “a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair,” and therefore outside Huntington Beach’s jurisdiction as a charter city.

Though the text of the law does not provide for a specific effective date, in essence its effective date was January 1, 2025, leading to criticism online from conservatives — and Musk:

 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has challenged Huntington Beach’s ordinance in court. His challenge was ruled premature, but he won the right to appeal that decision, and he is now in the midst of the appeals process.

California’s voting laws have long been criticized as too lax. Republican National Committee member Shawn Steel told Breitbart News last month that Democrats won several congressional seats in California only because ballots received after Election Day, but postmarked by that day, were counted — a practice banned in many other states.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.