Netflix co-founder, wife spend $2.5 MILLION to stop California voter ID ballot measure

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, have donated massive sums to efforts fighting a California ballot measure that would establish stricter voter ID requirements.

The latest ballot measure donor list from California’s Fair Political Practices Commission showed that Hastings donated $1 million to oppose California’s Proposition 39. The measure would require voters to show proof of citizenship and personal identification in order to vote.

Per the New York Post, the donation was made on September 3. Earlier that same week, on August 31, Quillin donated $1.5 million.

Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, who helped bring the measure to the ballot, said in a statement, “California politicians are getting special interests to bankroll their dishonest smear campaign against Prop 39, but in the end we are confident voters will vote YES on Prop 39 because it is truly the bipartisan solution for Voter ID to restore trust in our democracy.”

The measure in California comes amid a focus by the Trump administration to root out fraud in voting systems across the country. US Attorney Bill Essayli announced in June that his office had opened multiple election fraud investigations in coordination with the FBI Los Angeles field office.

“California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence,” he said at the time.

Hastings has been a major political donor in California. In 2022, he donated $3 million in an effort to block the attempted recall of Governor Gavin Newsom. Since 2001, he has donated tens of millions to politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Major financial supporters of Prop 39 include packaging billionaire Richard Uihlein and former RFK Jr. running mate Nocile Shanahan, who is the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.