Voters in Six States to Decide Voter ID Measures This Fall

Voters in at least six states will decide ballot measures related to voter identification this year, the largest number of such measures in a single year, according to Ballotpedia.

Oklahoma voters were first to weigh in, approving a measure during Tuesday's primary runoff that codifies the state's existing voter ID policy into its constitution. Measures still to come this fall in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina — all presidential swing states — would toughen ID requirements for voters.

The ballot measures come as a Republican-backed election overhaul in Congress, which would add proof-of-citizenship and other identification requirements nationwide, has stalled. Separately, lawmakers in eight other states have already made voter ID requirements more stringent this year, according to the Voting Rights Lab, a research group that supports expanded voting access.

Several other measures on ballots this fall address broader questions of who can vote and how elections are run. A number of states have proposals explicitly stating that only U.S. citizens may vote, a trend in Republican-led states in recent years even though noncitizens are already barred from voting in state and federal elections.

Alaska voters will again decide whether to keep their election system, which uses top-four, all-party primaries and ranked-choice voting in general elections. Maryland will vote on new congressional redistricting rules designed to benefit Democrats. And Massachusetts voters will consider all-party primaries and same-day voter registration.