A unanimous decision by the Nevada High Court ruled that the voter ID initiative can appear on the 2024 ballot if it can gather enough signatures supporting the campaign.
The move would amend the current Nevada Constitution and would require voters to present photo identification before they are allowed to vote.
Organizers should collect 100,000 valid signatures and submit them before or on June 26.
If the petition signing is successful, the voters will decide on the measure this year and in 2026 before its implementation.
The initiative also campaigns for additional verification for mail-in ballots, such as indicating the last four digits of the voter’s license or Social Security number.
The high court upheld the decision made by the lower court last February, rejecting the appeal of the measure’s opponent.
Those who have opposed the voter ID measure were lawyers from Nevada and Washington DC, who backed Democrat causes and equated the voter ID campaign to the unconstitutional poll tax.
Under the current election law of Nevada, voters can vote without presenting any identification card before entering the polling center. However, every voter must provide a signature that matches the one in the state’s files.
David Gibbs, chairman of Repair the Vote, acknowledged the decision and said, “It’s nice that the voters of Nevada are going to get a chance to decide this issue.”
Repair the Vote PAC initiated the campaign for Voter ID requirement.
According to the group, their volunteers had already collected 70,000 signatures from fellow Nevadans and will proceed and finish collecting the rest of the signatures required for the measure to move forward.
“We’re moving forward,” Gibbs said. “We will get the signatures that we need and turn it in, and get this on the ballot.”
Gibbs’ proposal wrote down the identification cards acceptable during the polls, such as Nevada driver’s license, passport, tribal or university ID, an ID card issued by a state or US government, or another form of government-issued ID that the Legislature approves.
The chairman of the Repair the Vote pointed out that despite opposition from the Democrats, there is overwhelming support for the measure.
In a recent survey by Pew Research Center, at least 95 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats back the measure.
“To me, every American should want to make sure that every person who casts a ballot is an eligible, registered voter,” he said. “Everybody should be in favor of that.”
Meanwhile, Gibbs acknowledge that the initiative will face more challenges, “but that is an issue for later.”
