For Immediate Release
October 13, 2026
Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, Assemblymember David Alvarez, and Community Organizations Call on Californians to Vote “NO on Prop 39” as Vote-by-Mail Voters Weigh Ballot Choices
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and Assemblymember David Alvarez (D – San Diego) joined community organizations in San Diego on Tuesday, October 13 to urge Californians to vote “NO on Prop 39.” Elected and community leaders spoke to the importance of opposing the Trump-driven ballot measure that would make voting harder, less secure, and more expensive for Californians.
“We know from our history what happens when people who fear justice and equality decide who gets to vote,” said San Diego County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe. “It may be 2026, but MAGA is targeting the same people who have been denied an equal voice in our democracy for generations, including Black and Brown communities, seniors, students, and people with fewer resources. Donald Trump and his right-wing billionaire allies can dress their agenda up as election integrity. But we know voter suppression when we see it. We won’t sit by and let that happen.”
At least $25 million in support of Proposition 39 has come from just two prominent MAGA donors and allies of President Trump.
“California women register and turn out to vote at higher rates than men, and Prop 39 represents a direct attack on us,” said Denise Vedder, League of Women Voters San Diego Advocacy Chair. “Women who change their names after marriage or divorce will have to fight through a mountain of paperwork to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. The time it takes for a voter to resolve a paperwork problem, the transportation and child care costs and the missed work involved – none of that is free.”
Prop 39’s effects will be disproportionately felt by seniors, students, low-income workers, and millions of women who change their names as a result of marriage or divorce.
“Prop 39 would waste hundreds of millions of California taxpayer dollars a year, all in an attempt to satisfy Trump’s quest to distract people with new election conspiracies, aka lies,” said Dr. Kyra Greene, Executive Director of the Center on Policy Initiatives. “Prop 39 would put not only the state, but individual counties on the hook to defend against potentially frivolous lawsuits from voter-suppression groups whose goal is take us back to a time when it was harder for regular working people, especially seniors, students, low-income workers, women and people of color to vote.”
The independent Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) estimates that Prop 39 would cost California taxpayers at least tens of millions of dollars a year and up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
“The more people that know that Prop 39 is all cost and no benefit, the greater chance we have of coming together to protect our right to vote,” said San Diego Organizing Project Executive Director Dinora Reyna. “Make calls, send texts, talk to your neighbors. Go to https://noonprop39.com and click ‘Get Involved.’ And vote NO on Prop 39.”
More than 80% of Californians choose to vote by mail currently. Prop 39 would require mail voters to include the last four digits of a personally identifying number on their ballot envelope, putting voters at risk for identity theft.
“Proposition 39 is a Trump-driven, MAGA billionaire-funded power grab designed to restrict voting nationwide,” said David Trujillo, Executive Director of ACLU California Action. “California’s elections are already secure. Prop 39 doesn’t make them safer, just harder for you to vote.”
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