diff --git a/src/Parsoid/References.php b/src/Parsoid/References.php
index da05f662d..f7d172cd7 100644
--- a/src/Parsoid/References.php
+++ b/src/Parsoid/References.php
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use DOMElement;
 use DOMNode;
 use stdClass;
 use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Core\DomSourceRange;
-use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Core\Sanitizer;
 use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Ext\DOMDataUtils;
 use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Ext\DOMUtils;
 use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Ext\ExtensionTagHandler;
@@ -174,16 +173,6 @@ class References extends ExtensionTagHandler {
 		$followName = $refDmw->attrs->follow ?? '';
 		$refDir = strtolower( $refDmw->attrs->dir ?? '' );
 
-		// Looks like Cite.php doesn't try to fix ids that already have
-		// a "_" in them. Ex: name="a b" and name="a_b" are considered
-		// identical. Not sure if this is a feature or a bug.
-		// It also considers entities equal to their encoding
-		// (i.e. '&' === '&'), which is done:
-		//  in PHP: Sanitizer#decodeTagAttributes and
-		//  in Parsoid: ExtensionHandler#normalizeExtOptions
-		$refName = Sanitizer::escapeIdForAttribute( $refName );
-		$followName = Sanitizer::escapeIdForAttribute( $followName );
-
 		// Add ref-index linkback
 		$linkBack = $doc->createElement( 'sup' );
 
diff --git a/src/Parsoid/ReferencesData.php b/src/Parsoid/ReferencesData.php
index bbae5789f..2932d3a20 100644
--- a/src/Parsoid/ReferencesData.php
+++ b/src/Parsoid/ReferencesData.php
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ namespace Wikimedia\Parsoid\Ext\Cite;
 
 use DOMElement;
 use stdClass;
+use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Core\Sanitizer;
 use Wikimedia\Parsoid\Ext\ParsoidExtensionAPI;
 
 class ReferencesData {
@@ -110,8 +111,13 @@ class ReferencesData {
 			// Notes whose ref has a name are 'cite_note-' + name + '-' + index
 			$n = $this->index;
 			$refKey = strval( 1 + $n );
-			$refIdBase = 'cite_ref-' . ( $hasRefName ? $refName . '_' . $refKey : $refKey );
-			$noteId = 'cite_note-' . ( $hasRefName ? $refName . '-' . $refKey : $refKey );
+
+			// FIXME: normalizeKey in core performs a few more operations on $refName,
+			// which will be addressed in a follow up
+			$refNameSanitized = Sanitizer::escapeIdForAttribute( $refName );
+
+			$refIdBase = 'cite_ref-' . ( $hasRefName ? $refNameSanitized . '_' . $refKey : $refKey );
+			$noteId = 'cite_note-' . ( $hasRefName ? $refNameSanitized . '-' . $refKey : $refKey );
 
 			// bump index
 			$this->index += 1;