Nevada Republican Group Tries Again To Place Restrictive ID Amendment on 2024 Ballot
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Republican-backed group in Nevada has kicked off a process to place a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot that would implement restrictive ID requirements for in-person and mail-in voting.
Under the proposed amendment, Nevada voters casting their ballots in person would be required to present the following identification: a Nevada driver’s license, an ID card issued by any U.S. state or the U.S. government, a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID, a student ID issued by a Nevada public college, university or technical school, a tribal ID, a state-issued concealed firearms permit or an additional form of government-issued photo ID approved by the Legislature.
Currently, Nevada voters are not required to present any form of ID in order to vote in person.
The proposed amendment would also require that those voting by mail provide either the last four digits of their Nevada driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number (SSN) if they lack a license or the number provided by the county clerk when they voter registered to vote if the voter has neither a license or an SSN.
The group behind the amendment, Repair the Vote, tried to attack voting rights in the state last year. The group proposed two failed ballot measures — one that would have added ID requirements for both in-person and mail-in voting and another that would have repealed state provisions that implemented universal mail-in voting, established community ballot collection and allowed officials to accept mail-in ballots missing a postmark that are received up to three days after Election Day.
After a Nevada voter challenged the language of the proposed ID requirements amendment, a judge ruled that the petition’s description needed to be amended, a move that invalidated the previous petition and ultimately resulted in the group failing to achieve the requisite number of signatures to place the amendment on the ballot.
A separate Republican-backed group, R.I.S.E. Nevada, also failed to place two amendments on the ballot in 2022 that would have added strict photo ID requirements. Both amendments were subject to lawsuits, one of which was struck down after a court found the initiative “legally deficient.” R.I.S.E. withdrew the other proposal before a court could rule.
The next step in the process is obtaining petition signatures from 10% of the voters who voted in the state at the last preceding general election, and 25% of the total number of signatures required must come from each of Nevada’s four congressional districts.