West

More than 500,000 Californians demand voting overhaul, back ‘straightforward’ ID law

Published

6 months ago

November 9, 2025

More than 500,000 Californians demand voting overhaul, back ‘straightforward’ ID law

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FIRST ON FOX: More than 500,000 California voters have signed a petition to amend the state’s constitution to enforce voter ID laws for all elections, leaders of a coalition called Californians for Voter ID told Fox News Digital.

“We had a dog that voted in the last couple elections in Costa Mesa,” Republican California state Sen. Tony Strickland told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday phone interview about California’s persistent voter integrity concerns. “We don’t clean up our voter rolls. There are so many times where people move, college kids go out of state, or people move and they don’t clean up the voter rolls. And we mail out to everybody, and so you have a lot of live ballots with ballot harvesting.”

“Our initiative will now clean up the voter rolls throughout the state,” he added.

Strickland, who represents a district that includes portions of Orange and Los Angeles counties along the Southern California coast, is helping lead the charge to collect more than one million petition signatures from California voters in order to force the issue on the ballot for the 2026 election. The signature collection kicked off Oct. 1, meaning the group collected support from more than half-a-million voters in a one-month span.

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS LAUNCH VOTER ID BALLOT PUSH, NEED 875K SIGNATURES BY DEADLINE

More than 500,000 California voters have signed a petition to amend the state’s constitution to enforce voter ID laws for all elections. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Californians for Voter ID initiative specifically would amend California’s constitution and require voters to present government-issued IDs before casting a ballot in all future elections in the state.

California voters would be required to present a government-issued ID before voting in-person, or provide the last four-digits of a government ID if voting by mail. Election officials, under the initiative, would be required to verify a voter’s citizenship to ensure only legal residents register to vote or receive ballots.

Democrats historically have opposed voter ID laws over claims it disenfranchises minority voters, while conservatives argue it will ensure only legal residents are able to cast ballots and further bolster voter integrity. Thirty-six states have voter ID laws already on the books, though such laws vary and have some exceptions.

Californians for Voter ID leaders, however, say the issue is not a partisan one, but an effort to protect democracy for all Americans.

The lead strategist for the effort, Ryan Erwin, told Fox News Digital that recent polling shows 70% of Californians across the political spectrum support elections requiring IDs to vote, while underscoring the outpouring of support that has led to more than 500,000 signatures already secured.

“We are on pace to qualify for the ballot faster than any measure in the history of California,” Erwin said. “Voter ID is a commonsense way to build trust in the election process by requiring election officials to use government data to verify citizenship and voter eligibility, while also requiring identification for every vote counted.”

OBAMA ENDORSES NEWSOM CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING PROP 50

“Californians of all political stripes are eager to improve trust in the system by eliminating abuse and errors while protecting every eligible vote,” he continued. “The volunteer effort is overperforming, we have signatures from all 58 counties, and are on pace to qualify well ahead of our goal.”

The group needs a total of 874,641 in order to land the initiative on the 2026 ballot in the Golden State, but is aiming to secure 1.2 million signatures to ensure the support is certified by county officials who will go through the data before it is permitted to land on the ballot. Organizers have until March to secure the needed signatures before potentially getting on the ballot — with Strickland reporting he’s confident they will get the needed support.

State Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican from California, is confident they will get the needed support to get the voting initiative on the ballot. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“You have to be a citizen in order to register to vote,” Strickland said of the nuts and bolts of the amendment itself, calling it “very straightforward.”

“You have seven forms of documentation, you get to choose what form of documentation that you use in terms of the last four digits of whatever the documentation is,” he said. “When you go to the polls, you show your ID, and if you mail in your ballot, you show that proof of the documentation of the last four digits that you choose.”

“The other part of this initiative is we have a mandatory audit (to) all 58 counties of their election rules after every election,” he added.

Strickland is no stranger to voter ID efforts in the deep blue state, including championing a voter ID ballot initiative in Huntington Beach, California, in 2024, when he served on the city council. Voters approved the amendment forcing voters to show their ID when casting ballots in local elections, but the California Court of Appeals struck down the law in November.

If the statewide voter ID effort is approved by voters on the ballot in 2026, local lawmakers will be compelled to comply with voter ID laws set forth in the initiative.

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL REQUIRE VOTER ID WITH EXECUTIVE ORDER

Strickland said the massive amount of support the initiative already has received is on par with a 1978 initiative, Proposition 13, “when the legislature was out of touch with the people, the people rose up” and passed the ballot measure that fundamentally changed how property taxes were assessed and limited in California.

Strickland also compared it to the successful recall of former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 — California’s first and only successful recall of a governor. Strickland was the first legislator to endorse Davis’ recall as energy and economic woes rocked the state.

If the California voter ID effort is approved by voters on the ballot in 2026, local lawmakers will be compelled to comply with voter ID laws set forth in the initiative. (Gary Leonard/Getty Images)

“Speaking around the state of California, I would equate what’s going on today with voter ID and voter integrity to those two movements in California,” he said.

The California state senator also praised California Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio and his group, Reform California, for their ongoing efforts championing voter ID laws in the state, describing DeMaio’s work as “relentless.” Strickland and DeMaio are joint authors of the voter ID push and have teamed up to meet with voters at various events to rally support, including a recent event in Santa Barbara, where the people couldn’t get through the door because it was so packed, he said.

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California’s voting laws have fallen under the Trump administration’s critical eye just this week, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posting to X Tuesday that the Golden State has the “WORST laws for securing elections in the entire nation.”

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that California is facing a “very serious legal and criminal review” over claims the state’s special election to redraw congressional district lines was mired in corruption. Voters passed the measure to redistrict on Tuesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrating

“California doesn’t require voters to show photo ID before casting a ballot – despite nearly 90% of Americans supporting photo ID laws,” Leavitt posted in a lengthy message detailing issues she sees with the state’s election process. “California uses universal mail-in-balloting, which we know is extremely vulnerable to fraud and abuse. In the 2024 election alone, California mailed nearly 10 million mail-in ballots that were never returned.”

The Heritage Foundation keeps a database compiling cases of known voter fraud — namely cases that have led to criminal convictions — and found California has at least 68 cases of voter fraud since 2001. The examples include individuals who fraudulently used absentee ballots for duplicate votes, non-resident voting and fraudulent voter registration.

The database shows other states, such as Illinois and Texas, have more instances of confirmed voting fraud, at more than 100 cases each, while other states such as Nebraska have seen only at least three instances of confirmed voter fraud in recent years.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes a question from a reporter during the daily briefing at the White House on Nov. 4, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Newsom has countered the claims, arguing California’s elections are fair and secure while slamming Trump over his remarks.

“He also announced today, right when polls were opening, that this election was rigged. Of course, those are familiar words. It’s exactly what Donald Trump said after Jan. 6, that day of love, where he tried to light democracy on fire, he tried to wreck this country,” Newsom said Tuesday after polling showed the state passed Proposition 50 to redistrict.

“I hope it’s dawning on people the sobriety of this moment,” Newsom continued. “What’s at stake. Tonight, as I said, is an extraordinary moment for our party, but again, it’s an extraordinary moment affirming those principles. Our Founding Fathers did not live and die to see the kind of vandalism to this republic and our democracy that Donald Trump is trying to perpetuate.”

A ballot initiative championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redistrict California’s congressional lines passed in a special election Nov. 4, 2025. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

For Strickland, he championed that the voter ID initiative will move ahead with the help of grassroots efforts and a little “homework.”

“I’m going to speak to two groups today, and I give them homework assignments, just saying, ‘Please take those packets. We’re planning to go get 50 signatures, go get 100.’ And I use a sports analogy. I say, in baseball, if you hit two times out of every 10, you’re barely making the major leagues. You’re probably going down the minor leagues. But if you get three hits every 10, you’re an all-star. And I’m asking everybody to get that extra hit in life,” Strickland said.

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New Mexico

Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years

Published

4 minutes ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years

Phoebe Bridgers played her first solo show in three years on Friday night at The Liberty in Roswell, New Mexico. And if reports are to be believed, the singer’s next album/creative era could truly be out of this world.

The intimate, 13-song set at the 400-capacity venue served as Bridgers’ first solo performance since May 2023 when she opened for Taylor Swift at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. According to posts from several attendees, Bridgers described the evening (which strictly forbid all recording devices) as a “test” for her third album (and follow-up to 2020’s excellent Punisher).

In addition to hits like “Motion Sickness” and “Kyoto,” Bridgers debuted three to four new songs. One attendee described the new music, which included one track tentatively-titled “This is Gonna Kill Me,” as “very sad folk.” Harmonica arrangements were also featured prominently across the new music, provided by Christian Lee Hutson, who served as part of Bridgers’ band.

Oregon

4.9 magnitude earthquake strikes off Northern California coast near Oregon border

Published

34 minutes ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

4.9 magnitude earthquake strikes off Northern California coast near Oregon border

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. (KATU) — A 4.9 magnitude earthquake was recorded off the coast of Northern California, near the Oregon border, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The earthquake struck just before 10 p.m. on Friday, about 67 miles west southwest of Crescent City, Calif., or about 267 miles south southwest of Salem, Ore., at a depth of about one and a half miles.

READ ALSO | Firefighters hold Pine Mountain Fire at 2,866 acres, containment remains at 25%

This earthquake did not generate a tsunami threat. No damage or injuries have been reported.

As of 11 a.m., the USGS has received 30 reports from residents who claimed to have felt shaking from this quake.

Did you feel it? Tap here to leave a report with the USGS.

According to the USGS, earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest ones felt by humans. Damage is more likely with earthquakes of magnitudes 4.0 and greater.

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Utah

Discover the deliciousness of New York-style pizza at Fini Pizza in Utah City

Published

1 hour ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Discover the deliciousness of New York-style pizza at Fini Pizza in Utah City

The beloved Fini Pizza made quite the impact during its debut in Utah City.

Just days after opening, the pizza joint sold out of everything by 5 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. The demand for the delicious New York-style pizza was higher than expected.

Owner Sean Feeney and the rest of his team worked late into the night to prep for the week, building pizza boxes, slicing pepperonis and doing all they could to prevent that from happening again.

Feeney said he has three goals with Fini Pizza:

“Make something that is excellent and delicious and cravable.”
“Do it in a way where you’re making others feel like they matter and you want their days to be better.”
“How do we then go outside of these doors and really show people how proud we are to be a part of this neighborhood?”

For the first time, Fini Pizza also opened up Fini Cafe, a charming little cafe that serves up bagels, sandwiches, coffee and pastries.

“You can start your days with us,” Feeney said. “And we can start our day together on a good foot.”

Choosing Utah

Customers enjoy their pizza on the patio at Fini Pizza in Vineyard during its grand opening on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

This is the first location of Fini Pizza outside the New York City area. Why did Feeney choose Utah? It goes all the way back to his childhood.

Feeney visited the Beehive State to participate in the AAU National Basketball Championship at 11 years old in Salt Lake City. During that trip, he met Jazz legend Frank Layden and former players, like Luther Wright and John Crotty. He also said he “fell in love with Utah” on his first visit.

His family kept coming back to the state they fell in love with, and Feeney said he always wanted to plant some kind of roots in Utah.

“I just resonated with the family-first values-driven environment,” Feeney said. “When I visit Utah, I feel like there is a strong sense of family. There’s a very values-driven environment that I just love. I think about the mountains. I think about the active lifestyle people live here.”

So when a friend showed him some renderings of plans for Utah City, an up-and-coming neighborhood in Vineyard, he figured this was how he could bring Fini Pizza to the state he loved so much.

“I saw the mountains, and I got very excited about building a community from the ground up. And we start with pizza,” Feeney said.

A history of Fini Pizza

Plans for Fini Pizza started taking shape at the end of 2020.

Sunlight shines on a table at Fini Pizza during the grand opening of its first location outside of New York in Vineyard on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

“I’ve always loved pizzerias,” Feeney said. “I grew up in New Jersey, and most of my greatest memories of meals and birthday parties, and after soccer practices or even after funerals and wakes, we would go to our local neighborhood pizzerias growing up.”

Feeney had already found success with two Italian restaurants and decided it was time to try out his pizza dream. He noticed at the time that his neighborhood in Williamsburg in New York City was getting more and more polarized. He thought, why not open a pizza place to bring people together?

“I thought, that would be an exciting thing to try to do and add a pizzeria that was really focused on bringing people together and delivering good days,” Feeney said.

He opened four more Fini Pizza establishments in Brooklyn over the span of six years.

Now, in the Utah City cafe, illustrations of the four restaurants decorate the walls, reminding customers of the history of the place.

“I thought the concept of Fini would resonate with just kind of what I love about Utah,” Feeney said.

The bill from the first purchase during the grand opening of Fini Pizza in Vineyard is taped to the wall behind the service counter on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

Growing up around food

In New Jersey, Feeney grew up having the dinner table as an important part of his days. His mom is Italian and his dad is Irish, and he recalls having their entire families come down to their house on the Jersey Shore.

“We would have these big Sunday suppers and cookouts,” Feeney said. “And I saw my Italian aunts and grandma and my mom and her sisters cooking all day and everybody else just having the best time. And I would get to see my dad be so proud to host everybody in his backyard.”

His family also made the restaurant experience special for him and his siblings. His dad would make reservations for the family at “incredible restaurants” in New York City, and then he would study up on them and share the history of the restaurant and what to order.

“It was all ingrained in me from an early age,” Feeney said.

In 2003, Feeney moved to New York City from New Jersey to work in finance. He loved trying out new restaurants after work, and he would take clients, friends and co-workers out almost every night of the week.

“Over the course of 16 years doing that five nights a week, sometimes six, I started becoming just really great friends with people in the industry,” Feeney said.

He became friends with a neighbor who was a chef, and they ultimately decided to open a restaurant together — Lilia in Williamsburg. Two and a half years later, he left his day job to pursue the restaurant industry full time.

Feeney said the hospitality industry “kind of found me. I just kept feeding the passion for it. And then it turned out that the people I loved most were like, ‘You should do this. You seem really happy, and you love it.’ And I haven’t really looked back since.”

The ‘magic’ of owning a restaurant

The first customers place their orders at Fini Pizza in Vineyard during its grand opening on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

The best part of owning a restaurant is the people he gets to work with, according to Feeney.

“They’ve changed my life in a big way,” Feeney said. “The people that I get to work with every day and having this amazingly awesome responsibility of being in their charge, I truly am grateful. I never thought I would be in that position ever. And it’s just changed my life forever.”

He called what his employees do in the hospitality industry “noble” and says when they help make a person’s day better by serving up delicious food that they create “magic.”

“What they produce every single night, what we do together, it’s bigger than the sum of its parts,” Feeney said. “And that’s what I’ve loved. And I’ve loved being able to just witness people doing this for others.”

Fini Pizza giving back

A stack of pizza boxes line the wall as an employee places a slice into the warming oven at Fini Pizza in Vineyard on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

Fini Pizza offers 25% discounts year-round to firefighters, police officers and educators. They also have a program where children under 17 can read three books, share the title and two sentences about the books, and then receive a free pizza for them and their family.

“I just wanted to continue to find creative ways to invest in the community, make the neighborhood more together, more stronger, and more connected,” Feeney said.

Another way Fini Pizza is getting involved with the community is through a program called Fini Hoops.

The Fini Hoops program hosts basketball teams on its own court — he tried it out in New York and loved it, so the Utah City location is also getting its own court, which is currently being built up. It will open up in June.

At the court, Fini Hoops will host basketball tournaments, camps and clinics to get more kids playing ball, and then afterwards, they can enjoy some pizza. Winners of the Fini Hoops tournaments receive free pizza for life.

Utah Jazz forward Kevin Love, right, yells out names on orders as helps out during the grand opening of Fini Pizza in Vineyard on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

“I just wanted to create moments for youth in basketball and connect it to pizza as well,” Feeney said.

What I ordered

When I stopped into Fini Pizza on a Wednesday night, I was greeted by smiles and friendly hellos from the staff. The aesthetic of the place is beautiful, with wood accents and a woodsy green color.

A slice of the NY White Pie and a Sicilian slice sit on a counter at Fini Pizza in Vineyard on Saturday, May 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

Here’s what I ordered:

The Sicilian Pizza: I ordered a slice of the Sicilian pizza, which has a thicker crust, sweet crushed tomato sauce, chili oil, garlic breadcrumbs, freshly shaved parmigiano and pepperoni. There was a little heat that I really liked, maybe from the pepperoni and chili oil? This was a very good slice of pizza.

The White Pizza: I ordered a whole box of this one to share with my sister, and I’m glad I did. The crust is classic New York style crust. The pizza comes with three cheeses — fresh mozzarella, parmigiano and fontina — and on top is drizzled olive oil and lemon zest. I wasn’t sure what I would think of the lemon, but it surprised and delighted me in the best way. It’s refreshing and a beautiful final note to the overall taste.