When I voted in November 2024, I heard many people asking whether they needed ID to cast their ballot. In
fact, voting in New York State does not require IDs. As has been the practice for many years, at your local
voting site, poll workers compare the signatures of New Yorkers to verify their identities. It’s that simple.

In contrast, federal law requires a valid form of ID – such as a driver’s license or Social Security number – to
register to vote. This has been required since 2002 when Congress passed the Help America Vote Act.
Voting rights and accessibility advocates who back free and robust elections argue that mandating IDs at the
polls would block eligible citizens from participating in democracy.

Photo ID laws deprive many voters of their right to vote, reduce participation, and are antithetical to the goal
of including more Americans in the democratic process. Many Americans do not have one of the forms of
government-issued photo identification that some state laws list as acceptable for voting. These voters are
disproportionately low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Such voters
more frequently cannot afford or cannot obtain the underlying documents that are a prerequisite to obtaining a
government-issued photo ID card.

Senate and Assembly Republicans in New York repeatedly proposed legislation requiring voter ID in the last
legislative session. And given that Republicans will occupy the White House and will be the majority in both the
U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in 2025, there’s a good chance they will propose a federal
law that requires government-issued photo ID in order to cast your ballot.

Nan Haynes