A bill cleared a Kentucky Senate committee on Wednesday that would restrict more forms of secondary identification that can be used by voters to cast a ballot in Kentucky elections — even though state records show only a tiny fraction of voters use them.
The Kentucky General Assembly passed a law in 2020 requiring voters to have valid identification with their photo on it in order to vote, but also allowed secondary forms of identification if they signed an affidavit affirming their identity.
Last year, lawmakers passed a law to exclude credit cards with the voter’s name as a valid secondary identification, and Senate Bill 154 that advanced Wednesday would also strike social security and food assistance cards from the list of acceptable secondary IDs under the 2020 law.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield told lawmakers in committee that her bill is needed to strengthen Kentucky’s voter ID law, as these secondary forms of identification do not have the voter’s photo on them.
Tichenor noted that 10 other states have a strict law requiring a photo ID in order to vote, and her SB 154 “would get us in line with some other states, and really in line with a stronger system to have identification for our voters.”
But according to records from the State Board of Elections obtained by Kentucky Public Radio, it is extremely rare that Kentucky voters use social security cards and food assistance cards — also called food stamps, EBT or supplemental nutrition assistance cards — as their identification when voting.
Read the rest at LPM News.
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