Our Comment on the Proof of citizenship petition to the Elections Assistance Commission
The League of Women Voters of Idaho strongly objects to the petition to add documentary proof of citizenship to the federal voter registration form for the following reasons:
1) This new rule could potentially disenfranchise thousands of Idahoans. Voters would be asked to prove their citizenship by producing U.S. passports or birth certificates with names that match the voters’ current legal names. Less than 50 percent of Idahoans hold a U.S. passport and, according to the U.S. Census, nearly 450,000 female Idahoans do not have a birth certificate with a name that matches their current name. Difficulties associated with obtaining proof of citizenship are a barrier to voting disproportionately impacting low-income Idahoans, senior citizens, people from underrepresented populations, and the disabled. In Idaho, a revised birth certificate costs $16 for each certified copy, plus a $20 fee for changes made more than one year after the event. It can take weeks or months to receive a certified copy of one’s birth certificate. Those seeking to prove their citizenship with a first-time passport will pay $165. Adults renewing a passport pay $130. The EAC petition also specifies that to qualify as proof of citizenship, state-issued drivers licenses would need to be Real-ID-compliant. Only 59% of Idaho drivers licenses meet that standard. These difficulties are compounded in rural Idaho. State and federal offices are concentrated in the state’s few urban centers.
2) It is particularly unnecessary in Idaho. Idaho has received national recognition for election administration. In June 2025, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office received a Clearinghouse award from the Election Assistance Commission for its “proactive and collaborative approach to election security and threat response.” At every level, the state has reaffirmed that noncitizens can not vote. The governor signed Executive Order 2024-07, the Only Citizens Can Vote Act, declaring as much. The 2024 Legislature passed HJR 5 to constitutionally forbid noncitizens from voting. Nearly 65% of Idaho voters approved the constitutional amendment. Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane has frequently commented on the guardrails in place in Idaho elections to protect against noncitizen voting. “Across Idaho’s 44 counties, we have excellent mechanisms in place already to ensure noncitizens do not vote in Idaho.” A 2024 scrub of Idaho voter rolls revealed that among the state’s 1 million-plus voters, 36 were deemed “very likely” noncitizens. “Out of the million plus registered voters we started with, we’re down to 10 thousandths of a percent in terms of this number. … This is very rare, it’s very limited,” the Secretary said.
3) The Idaho elections system already cross-references federal and state databases to ascertain citizenship status of voters. Every voter’s information is sent through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. Data from the Idaho Transportation Department and the Idaho State Police are also used to verify citizenship.
4) Members of Idaho’s supermajority Republican party are generally supportive of state-run elections. Recently, eight of Idaho’s most conservative legislators reaffirmed their belief that “states control voter eligibility for their elections” and that states run elections independent of the federal government.
5) It inserts the U.S. President in state-run elections. This petition was brought to the EAC by America First Legal, founded by Stephen Miller, a high ranking official in the Trump White House. The courts have already weighed in on presidential meddling in elections. “Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in a 120-page opinion.
This petition establishes significant barriers to voting among Idaho’s qualified electors and is especially unnecessary in this state. The League of Women Voters of Idaho is opposed to this and any effort to abridge a citizen’s right to have a say in their government through voting.