Voter access, election integrity on the ballot in 11 states

Voters in 11 states across the country on Tuesday are deciding proposals that seek to protect the integrity of their elections. The proposals vary from amending state constitutions so that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections to requiring voters to produce proof of citizenship at the polls. The ballot issues are responding to concerns about voter fraud and the ability of illegal immigrants to vote in local, state, and federal elections.

Where will voters be deciding their state’s election integrity measures?

• Alaska: The United States Citizens Voter Act will appear before Alaskans on Tuesday. The ballot measure would clarify state law to say that only United States citizens who also meet other requirements may vote in state and federal elections in Alaska.

• Arkansas: A ballot issue called the Citizens Only Voting Amendment seeks to amend the Arkansas Constitution’s voter eligibility requirements to clarify that only United States citizens can vote in elections in the state.

• Kansas: Voters in the Sunflower State will also decide whether to amend their state’s constitution so that it explicitly states that only U.S. citizens are eligible voters. The proposed amendment makes clarifying changes to the state’s constitution.

• South Dakota: A similar proposed constitutional amendment would also clarify that only U.S. citizens can vote in South Dakota’s elections. The proposed amendment clarifies that noncitizens—just like felons or mentally incompetent individuals—cannot vote.

• West Virginia: Voters will decide whether to clarify that the West Virginia Constitution prohibits noncitizen voting. The edits to the text of the constitution would explicitly affirm that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections in the state.

• Nevada: Voters in Nevada will decide whether to amend their state’s constitution to require voters to produce documentation proving their citizenship and eligibility to vote in future elections. The proposal, approved in 2024, is appearing before voters for a second time pursuant to state requirements.

• North Carolina: A proposed constitutional amendment would require voters to produce a photo ID to vote in person in North Carolina. The ballot measure offloads the responsibility of deciding what qualifies as a photo ID to the state’s legislature after the proposal is passed.

• Ohio: Voters in the Buckeye State will decide whether to add a whole new section to their state’s constitution that requires voters to produce a photo ID to vote in person. The law would also require proof of identification for those voting via absentee ballot.

• California: Proposition 39 in the Golden State, if passed, would invalidate any absentee ballots that didn’t bear at least four digits of a government-issued identification number. It would also require voters at in-person voting stations to produce some form of government identification as well.

• Colorado: Voters will consider whether to require absentee ballots in future elections to bear the last four digits of an individual’s Social Security number or the last four digits of their state Real ID number. The state already requires in-person voters to provide proof of identification.

• Arizona: Voters will get to decide in Proposition 144 whether to require voter ID for both in-person and absentee ballots and tighten up the definition of acceptable proof of identification. The law would also prohibit foreign nationals from contributing to or influencing Arizona elections.

Are there other states where election integrity or voter ID questions have recently been addressed? On Oct. 22, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal district court in New Hampshire could not prevent state officials from describing in their own way a new law declaring student IDs as invalid proof of identification for voting purposes. The district court had enjoined state officials from making certain statements about what the law did or did not do. The high court rolled back that injunction.

Is noncitizen voting a significant issue in the United States? The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed last week that it had arrested dozens of illegal immigrants in the United States because they had illegally voted in American elections. The U.S. Census Bureau also reported last month that at least 24,000 noncitizens voted in the 2020 general election. But election-focused and pro-immigration advocacy groups—along with think tanks writing from different vantage points on the political spectrum—have claimed that noncitizen voting is extremely rare. Meanwhile, polling from earlier this year shows that while Americans hold differing views on how common noncitizen voting is, most of them support requiring proof of identification at polling places.