No evidence Trump victory is tied to voter ID laws
After Republican US president-elect Donald Trump declared victory in the November 5, 2024 race for the White House, social media users started claiming his opponent, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, only won in states that do not require identification to vote. This is false; some states that went for Harris do mandate ID, and Trump prevailed in some that do not.
"Kamala won EVERY SINGLE state that doesn’t require voter ID…. She didn’t win a SINGLE state that requires it. It’s insane that this is just being ignored," says a November 6, 2024 X post with more than 100,000 interactions.
The post contains a projection of Trump's Electoral College win beside a map of voter ID laws in US states compiled by the website Ballotpedia.
The same claim circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Gettr -- including in Spanish and German.
Voter ID laws are a contentious issue among US lawmakers, with some arguing they help prevent voter fraud while others say they are not effective and make it difficult for people without government-issued identification to cast their ballots.
A February 2024 poll from the Pew Research Center estimated just over 80 percent of Americans favor requiring voters to present a photo ID (archived here).
But the claims online, which play into debunked allegations of non-citizens voting in the 2024 presidential election, are inaccurate.
"She didn't actually win all of the states where photo ID is not required," said Lisa Bryant, chair of the political science department at California State University-Fresno (archived here), in a November 6 email.
Of the 49 states called as of November 8, Harris had won 19 -- including seven with a voter ID statute, according to an AFP tally based on information from the National Conference of State Legislatures (archived here). She also carried the second district in Nebraska, which has such a requirement, and the District of Columbia, which does not.
Of the 30 states called for Trump -- with Arizona not yet projected as of 2200 GMT on November 8 -- 28 have ID statutes. Pennsylvania and Iowa, as well as Maine's second district, do not (archived here and here).
Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (archived here), agreed the posts are incorrect while noting reliably Republican states tend to have stricter requirements.
"It is not surprising that Democratic candidates such as Harris fare better in 'blue' states where policymakers also tend to be skeptical about the value of strict voter ID requirements," he said in a November 6 email.
Officials verify identity
Ruth Greenwood, director of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School (archived here), said federal statutes require states to confirm a voter's identity when they register.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (archived here) requires states to verify registered voters are who they say they are and are eligible to vote. Some states achieve this by enacting strict photo ID laws, while others require poll workers to match the voter's signature to one on file.
"Every person who registers to vote must have their ID checked either through matching their drivers' license number, their (Social Security number), or by showing proof of residence at the polls," Greenwood said in a November 6 email.
"Every state requires voters to, at a minimum, prove their identity using their signature."
Some states, including Minnesota and California, offer same-day registration, but officials ask for some form of identification before issuing a ballot (archived here). New Hampshire and Rhode Island are also among the states with ID requirements that voted for Harris (archived here and here).
AFP has fact-checked other false claims about the 2024 US presidential election here.
