Secretary of State says voter ID qualifies for November ballot

By Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Nevada voters will decide whether identification will be required to vote in future elections.

The Nevada Secretary of State’s Office confirmed Friday that a petition for a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voter ID has obtained enough signatures to be placed on the ballot in the November election.

The initiative was proposed by Repair the Vote, a political action committee led by former Nevada Republican Club president and former Clark County GOP Chair David Gibbs. It would require each voter in Nevada to present photo identification when voting in person at polling places, and if voting by mail, require the last four digits of their Nevada drivers license or Social Security number.

If the measure passes in November, it would also have to be approved by voters in 2026 to amend the state constitution.

Repair the Vote PAC was required to gather more than 102,000 signatures by June 26. In the letter to Repair the Vote PAC, Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said his office verified 131,590 signatures. Aguilar’s letter also said a member of the Secretary of State’s Elections Division will contact PAC to begin discussions regarding the establishment of committees to prepare arguments advocating for and against the initiative.

“We are elated to have met another massive milestone in this process; now it is up to Nevadans,” Gibbs said.

In February, Carson City judge William Maddux rejected a legal challenge filed against the measure by Jennifer Fleischmann, the development director for Make the Road Nevada, an immigrant advocacy group which argued that voter ID essentially amounted to a unconstitutional poll tax. Maddux’s decision was unanimously upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court in May. In their decision, members of the State Supreme Court wrote that they were not convinced that the ballot question would require some sort of expenditure or appropriation to create a free form of identification for voters who do not have a form of identification.

Following the announcement from the Secretary of State, the Let Nevadans Vote Coalition released a statement from Emily Persaud-Zamora, executive director of Silver State Voices arguing that voter ID laws disproportionately impact voters of color and do nothing to make elections more secure.

“The use of government issued identification is not as popular as many people would believe with 15% of low-income voters lacking acceptable forms of photo identification,” Persaud-Zamora said. “We strongly oppose any effort to make it more difficult for BIPOC voters and low-income voters to cast their ballots.”