99% of those who qualify are not newbies who arrived yesterday. They live here, work here, have kids in the schools, use our health care system, and drive here now, all without having an authentic diver's license. Why be subject to any test, written or physical? Why buy insurance when for the last decade, being stopped without a license involves a fine which never gets paid? If there is an injury accident requiring a CHP report, so what? No incarceration and certainly, no deportation.
As for voting, they don't get paid to vote, they are not fearful of any change in California politics which is 70-80% left so 'what difference would it make?'
Bottom line, CA law generally applies only to its legal residents so becoming 'legal' is just a burden which yields few benefits if any.
Hasn’t it been ruled in several localities that asking for a license from illegals is racists? I know in CA they quit towing cars of illegals when they couldn’t produce license or registration during routine traffic stops; of course the same consideration was not given to citizens.