Nevada's secretary of state announced Friday that a proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to present photo identification at polling stations will appear on the November ballot. This amendment also includes additional verification for mail-in ballots, such as providing the last four digits of a driver’s license or Social Security number.
The voter ID proposal joins several other significant ballot measures for Nevada's upcoming election. These include initiatives surrounding abortion, to introduce ranked-choice voting, and eliminate language from the state constitution that allows slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishment.
For the voter ID amendment to be added to the state constitution, it must pass in both the November 2024 election and again in 2026. County officials confirmed approximately 132,000 valid signatures from the four petition districts, far exceeding the requirement.
Proponents argue that voter ID laws enhance election security and ensure that only eligible voters participate. Critics, including the NAACP and other civil rights organizations, contend that such requirements disproportionately affect minorities, the elderly, the disabled, and those without driver’s licenses.
During the 2023 legislative session, the voter ID issue highlighted a partisan divide between Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and the Democratic-majority Legislature. Lombardo, who prioritized voter ID, criticized Democratic leaders for not considering the proposal. He vowed to take the issue directly to the voters if the legislature did not act, a promise he reiterated when the signatures were verified.
Election procedures have been particularly controversial in Nevada, which adopted extensive mail-in voting during the pandemic. The state has been a focal point of President Trump's claims of a stolen 2020 election. Recently, county commissioners in Reno initially refused to certify the results of two local recounts but reversed their decision shortly after.
David Gibbs, president of the Repair the Vote political action committee behind the initiative, expressed hope that the proposal would motivate infrequent voters to participate in the election. “I know that we've had folks that have signed this that have not been regular voters,” Gibbs said. “I'm looking for those folks to get out and vote.”
This past weekend, a lawsuit brought by the GOP to ban mail-in ballots in Nevada that are received up to four days after election day was dismissed by Federal District Court Chief Judge Miranda Du. Appointed by Obama, Judge Du ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing, stating in her 15-page decision that there was no evidence to suggest the plaintiffs had suffered or were likely to suffer harm from the law. The challenge targeted a Nevada law passed in 2021, but Judge Du “found no grounds for the claim that it facilitated election fraud.”
