EDITORIAL: Top Nevada Democrat gives up the game on photo ID

In the wee hours of the Legislature, the Senate passed an amended version of Assembly Bill 499. Sponsored by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, it requires voters to show photo identification before voting in person. On mail ballots, there would be a space for an ID number, such as the last four digits of a driver’s license. Gov. Joe Lombardo will probably sign the bill.

Those proposals should sound familiar. They are similar to Question 7, overwhelmingly approved by Nevada voters in 2024. As a constitutional amendment, it goes before the electorate a second time in 2026. If approved again, it will be added to the Nevada Constitution.

Mr. Yeager’s proposal includes additional items not found in Question 7. One of the obvious differences is that it undercuts the ID number provision on mail ballots. If officials verify a voter’s signature, “the voter is entitled to cast the mail ballot and the identifying number is not required to be verified,” the bill states. Only if a voter’s signature doesn’t match are officials to “check the identifying number included on the return envelope.”

It also creates a digital identification card that voters can use to fulfill the photo ID requirement. The ballot measure doesn’t mention a digital option, although the language may be broad enough to include it.

Mr. Yeager’s bill also sets up new drop-box options for returning mail ballots after the close of early voting. Democratic voters disproportionately return mail ballots.

This move was smart politics. Recognizing that Question 7 is likely to pass overwhelmingly, the speaker won some concessions.

But take a step back. Many progressives have spent years asserting that requiring voter ID represses turnout among Black and Hispanic voters. The insulting assumption is that minority voters are incapable of obtaining identification cards as easily as white voters.

In 2021, Democrats in the U.S. House passed HR1, which undermined photo ID laws in states that had them. The bill stated that “minority communities … are disproportionately burdened by voter identification and other voter restrictions. Research shows that communities of color are more likely to face nearly every barrier to voting than their white counterparts.” Liberal-leaning groups promote similar lines of attack. The League of Women Voters claims that voter ID laws “promote voter suppression.” The ACLU has said, “Strict photo ID laws are discriminatory.”

So much for that. When it stopped being politically expedient, Nevada Democrats implicitly acknowledged the obvious: Requiring photo ID in a reasonable effort to balance election security with access is just common sense.