Voters Approve Photo ID and Citizenship Rules While Backing Abortion Access

Tuesday's ballot measure results reveal a cross-cutting electorate that does not align neatly with either party's platform, supporting both expanded reproductive rights and tighter election-access...

Voters in multiple states on Tuesday approved ballot measures requiring photo identification at the polls and affirming that only U.S. Citizens may vote in state elections, while simultaneously passing measures protecting abortion access, according to NBC News.

The combination of outcomes is notable because photo ID requirements and citizenship-only voting rules have been priorities of Republican legislative agendas at the state and federal level, while abortion access protections have been a central Democratic policy goal since the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion.

The NBC News report did not specify which individual states produced each outcome. The full list of states with certified results, including which measures passed and by what margin, would be contained in each state's official canvass documents, which are filed with state secretaries of state and are typically made public within 30 days of an election under state law.

Photo ID ballot measures have appeared on state ballots with increasing frequency over the past decade. As of the 2024 election cycle, 36 states had some form of voter ID law on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tuesday's results, once certified, would add to that count if new states voted to adopt such requirements.

Citizenship-only voting provisions address a question that has seen renewed legislative attention since several municipalities, including some in California and Maryland, passed local ordinances permitting non-citizen residents to vote in local elections. No state currently permits non-citizens to vote in state or federal elections, and federal law under 52 U.S.C. Section 10307 prohibits non-citizen voting in federal elections. State-level ballot measures enshrining citizenship requirements in state constitutions would add a layer of protection that proponents argue goes beyond existing statute.

The abortion-related measures that passed Tuesday extend a streak that began in the November 2022 midterms. In that cycle, voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont enshrined abortion rights in state constitutions, while Kansas voters rejected a measure that would have removed abortion protections from that state's constitution. In November 2023, Ohio voters passed Issue 1, which added abortion access to the state constitution. In November 2024, additional states adopted similar protections. The specific states and language of the measures that passed Tuesday are not fully detailed in available reporting as of publication time; complete ballot language and vote totals are available through each state's secretary of state office.

Republican strategists have pointed to photo ID and citizenship requirements as issues with broad public support. A June 2023 Gallup survey found that 79 percent of Americans supported requiring all voters to provide photo ID, including majorities of Democrats, independents, and Republicans. That polling context helps explain why such measures can pass in states that also approve abortion access protections, two positions that do not map onto a single party coalition.

For Democrats, the abortion results extend a run of ballot-measure wins on reproductive rights that began in 2022 and have been used by party strategists as evidence of durable majority support for abortion access outside of partisan primaries. For Republicans, the ID and citizenship results offer evidence that certain election-integrity priorities resonate with the broader electorate even in a cycle where the party faced significant losses in legislative races, as reported by Bloomberg.

What remains unknown is the precise vote margin for each measure, the full list of states where each type of measure appeared, and whether any measures of either type were rejected. Those figures will be available in certified canvass reports filed by each state's chief election officer, typically within 30 days of election day under applicable state statutes.