LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Organizers of a petition to require all voters to show identification at the polls said they have submitted 179,000 signatures, well more than required to qualify for the November ballot.
Now, county clerks and voter registrars will inspect the petitions to determine they have at least the minimum 102,362 valid signatures that are required. If so, the measure will be placed on the November ballot.
Because it's a constitutional amendment, if it's approved this year, it must also be approved in 2026 before it can take effect.
Dave Gibbs, president of the group Repair the Vote, says gathering signatures for the measure was not difficult.
"It was very remarkable," he said. "A lot of folks around the whole state were very interested in this and very positive about it. So there was not a lot of hesitancy on people's parts when it came time for them to decide to sign this petition."
Gibbs himself circulated the document, even showing up at the June 9 Donald Trump rally in Sunset Park to collect signatures as people waited in line to get into the venue.
Gibbs said a recent Fox News poll showed both Republicans and Democrats support requiring voter ID at the polls, with 84% saying they'd back the idea.
Under the petition, each voter would be required to present a government-issued photo ID when voting in person at the polls. The list of accepted documents includes military ID cards, student IDs issued by public colleges or universities, tribal IDs or a Nevada concealed firearms permit.
Voters who choose to vote by mail would be required to write on the outside of their mail ballot envelope the last four digits of their Nevada drivers license number, their Social Security number or a voter number issued by the county clerk when the person registered to vote.
"Everybody should have that same confidence in the election, that, whatever the outcome, you know that the process was fair," Gibbs said.
It wasn't easy getting the initiative on the ballot.
An earlier effort was stricken because a judge ruled the petition's description was argumentative. The petition was later refiled with a new description.
In February, a Carson City District Court judge upheld the measure after a legal challenge claimed it was misleading and contained an unfunded mandate. (If IDs are required to vote, the state would have to provide them for free, lest the state indirectly impose an unconstitutional "poll tax.")
Opponents appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, which upheld the petition in an unanimous ruling in May, saying its new description was acceptable. It said a ruling on the unfunded mandate question should be decided at a later time, assuming the petition gets voter approval.
Bills to allow for voter ID have been introduced repeatedly in Carson City by Republicans, but the Democratically-controlled Legislature has consistently ignored them. Democrats contend that voter ID could disenfranchise people who, for various reasons, don't have identification or have trouble getting it.
