CALIFORNIA — ABC7 Los Angeles reported on election night November 3 that Proposition 39, the statewide voter-identification initiative, was projected to fail. The station’s report showed roughly 60% against and 40% in favor, with an estimated half of the expected vote counted.

This is an attributed news projection, not a certified election result. The ABC7 live page was marked updated at 10:22 p.m. Pacific November 3 (6:22 a.m. GMT November 4). Its displayed percentages are rounded figures from that report, rather than a fresh statewide total independently retrieved by California58.

What Proposition 39 proposed

The Secretary of State identifies Proposition 39 as an initiative constitutional amendment imposing additional identification requirements. Its official summary says in-person voters would need government-issued identification. Mail ballots would require the last four digits of a designated government-issued identification number on the envelope.

The official voter guide describes a yes vote as requiring additional identifying information each time a person votes. A no vote retains the system in which a voter’s identity is established through the voter’s signature. The state’s fiscal summary estimates annual implementation costs ranging from tens of millions to the low hundreds of millions of dollars.

How to read the result

The question applies statewide, so an individual county’s returns cannot establish whether it passed across California. News organizations may project an outcome before officials finish counting; the canvass and certification remain separate official steps.

California58 is reporting the projection with its source and time and is not presenting partial county totals as statewide numbers.

Sources: ABC7 election-night report; Secretary of State’s nonpartisan Proposition 39 guide; official statewide results portal.

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