A voter ID initiative gets approval to appear on the November ballot in Nevada
RENO, Nevada — A proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls has been approved for Nevada’s November ballot, the state’s top elections official announced Friday.
The measure also provides an additional layer of verification for identifying mail-in ballots, such as the last four digits of a driver’s license or social security number.
The approval joins several ballot initiatives that voters will choose in the tight races up and down the November ballot in Nevada. This includes measures that further enshrine Nevada’s abortion rightsestablish new electoral processes that include, among other things, ranking votes And remove language from the state constitution These include slavery and involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment.
If the voter ID measure passes in November, it would also need to be approved by voters in 2026 to amend the state constitution.
According to the secretary of state’s office, county election officials verified about 132,000 signatures submitted by organizers, surpassing the nearly 26,000 valid signatures needed from each of the state’s four petitioning districts.
Supporters of voter ID requirements said they add necessary security and ensure that only qualified voters can cast ballots. Opponents argued that the requirements make it harder for people to vote, especially the elderly, people with disabilities and people without driver’s licenses. The NAACP and other civil rights groups have quarreled that it disproportionately harms black and Latino voters.
During the 2023 legislative session, voter ID became a partisan issue between Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Lombardo outlined it as one of his top priorities, but Democrats who control the state Legislature refused to give the proposal a hearing.
In a statement in which organizers submitted signatures for review, Lombardo criticized Democratic legislative leadership for blocking voter ID implementation.
“I promised voters that if the Legislature did not support the will of the people, I would take that vote directly to them,” Lombardo said in a statement last month, which his office referenced when asked for comment Friday. “And I am proud to see that become a reality today.”
The election procedures are generally very controversial in Nevada, which adopted sweeping election procedures during the pandemic, including a universal vote-by-mail system, and has been at the center of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election and the subsequent precipitation. County commissioners who oversee Reno and the surrounding area refused to certify the election results from two local recounts earlier this month, a vote they overthrown on Tuesday.
David Gibbs, president of the political action committee Repair the Vote, which organized the initiative, said he hopes the initiative will increase turnout among voters who don’t regularly go to the polls.
“I know we’ve had people who signed this who didn’t vote regularly,” Gibbs said. “I want those people to vote.”