Nevadans will have the opportunity this November to vote on whether photo identification will be required to cast a ballot in the state when voting in person (Question 7). Although at first glance a voter ID requirement may seem like a reasonable security measure, a closer look shows there is virtually no evidence to suggest that they are necessary to ensure our elections are secure, and such requirements erect unnecessary barriers to voting for people across the political spectrum.
If otherwise-eligible people are told they cannot vote unless they show a photo ID, it will make casting a ballot much harder by complicating the voting process and restricting access to the ballot box for many Nevadans who lack access to a government-issued photo ID.
Although many people across the country hold common identification documents, such as a driver’s license, national data shows that nearly 2.6 million people lack any government-issued identification. That means that thousands of Nevadans, many of whom would be otherwise eligible voters, will not be able to provide documentation to satisfy this photo voter ID requirement.
A lack of access to photo ID documentation is often much more common among historically marginalized communities, such as people of color, those with disabilities and young people. For example, while a driver’s license is the most commonly held ID and most commonly used to satisfy strict photo voter ID requirements, Black and Hispanic adults are nearly four times and three times less likely, respectively, to have a driver’s license than white adults. Twenty percent of people with a disability lack a driver’s license compared to just 6 percent of nondisabled people, and 18-year-olds are 30 percent less likely to have a driver’s license than those 35 or older. Altogether nearly 21 million voting-age Americans nationwide do not have a driver’s license.
Stopping people from voting if they don’t have a government-issued photo ID takes away the fundamental freedom to vote for the many otherwise eligible Nevadans who lack access to an allowable photo ID. What’s more, this law would take away those freedoms with little upside or benefit to the safety and security of Nevada elections.
For decades, politicians and political activists have raised unfounded concerns about our election process to justify voter identification requirements as a preferred “solution” to address certain perceived security threats. However, the utter lack of the type of voter impersonation that requiring photo IDs would theoretically address has been well documented in Nevada and across the country. For example, after receiving nearly half-a-million dollars in funding to establish an election integrity investigation division, the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office found just 14 instances of potential election fraud of any kind out of the nearly 2.4 million ballots cast in elections since 2020, or just .00058 percent of votes cast in the Silver State since 2020.
The rarity of such problems isn’t unique to Nevada either. Studies have shown that from 2000-2014 there were only 31 instances of voter impersonation of the nearly 1 billion votes cast in elections during that period, meaning that even before strict voter ID requirements became more common, these violations amounted to just .0000031 percent of votes cast during a one-and-a-half-decade long period. To put that in perspective, being struck by lightning is much more common than voter impersonation.
Simply put, voter ID requirements have almost no beneficial impact on the integrity of our already-secure elections, all while also depriving many otherwise eligible people of their freedom to vote.
The data clearly demonstrates that the safety and security of elections do not depend on forcing voters to provide a photo voter ID when they appear to cast a ballot. Along with failing to address any real security concerns, imposing such a voter ID requirement will prevent many eligible, law-abiding Nevadans from participating in the democratic process and enjoying their freedom to vote.
For more information on how to register to vote and cast your ballot, please visit https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections/election-information/2024-election-information.
Gariety Pruitt is the Nevada state director of For Our Future Action Fund, which aims to advance pro-worker policies in the Silver State.
Patrick Williamson serves as policy counsel with the Fair Elections Center, a nonpartisan organization focused on voting rights and election reform.
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