If the referendum passes, which means approving a constitutional amendment, Nevada will be the Western-most U.S. state to require voters to present a picture I.D. before they cast a ballot.
David Gibbs, who leads the Repair the Vote PAC, has been directing the statewide effort to qualify for November. Back in July, he says, the group was informed by the Nevada Secretary of State the I.D. issue qualified for the statewide ballot.
“And then, last week, we got notice that we're going to be Question No. 7 on the ballot,” he says.
To get voter I.D. in front of voters, canvassers collected more than 185,000 signatures that had to be validated by the Secretary of State.
Gibbs says a recent poll suggests Nevadans overwhelmingly support voter I.D. laws.
“There was one done in early 2023 and it showed that 74% of the people in Nevada were in favor of this, including 62% of Democrats and 68% of independents,” he says.
Election watchdog flags commercial properties
Nevada’s voter rolls have been repeatedly flagged by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a non-profit watchdog group founded by J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice attorney.
Going back to 2020, Public Interest says it has matched hundreds of questionable voter addresses that are also commercial addresses for liquor stores, parking lots, tattoo parlors, a Social Security office, a car repair shop, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Under state law, the watchdog group says, the Secretary of State automatically mails a ballot to every registered voter but the address must be a residence per state law.
The election watchdog, representing a Nevada voter, filed legal paperwork in May demanding the Washoe County Registrar of Voters examine 48 commercial addresses on the county's voter rolls.
Washoe County, which includes Reno, is Nevada’s second largest county.
Adams and Public Interest were fighting a motion to dismiss their petition in late July, according to court documents.
Democrats narrowly defeated Trump
Joe Biden officially won Nevada in 2020, defeating Donald Trump 50%-48%, a difference of approximately 33,600 votes.
Hillary Clinton narrowly won Nevada in 2016, defeating Trump by approximately 26,400 votes.
On the issue of voter fraud, Gibbs says he has quizzed elected officials over their objection to obtaining a valid I.D. to cast a legal ballot. They have told him, he says, they believe voter I.D. will “disenfranchise” people who are attempting to vote.
“I think the answer is,” he observes, “they just want to make sure that there's possibilities available for them.”
