Kentucky bill curbing use of college IDs as voter identification draws national concern

FRANKFORT – A Republican-backed bill advancing through the Kentucky legislature that would tweak voter identification standards in the Bluegrass State has drawn national interest, with coverage on Fox News and thousands of social media posts expressing concern.

So what's in the legislation?

Senate Bill 80, a measure from Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, was approved on the Kentucky Senate floor this week. It isn't a law yet, but it's cleared a significant hurdle in the 2024 General Assembly, which is set to last into April.

SB 80 would amend KRS 117.001, a Kentucky statute, to strip IDs from public or private colleges from the list of documents that qualify as primary "proof of identification" at the polls. It also would remove credit and debit cards from the list of secondary documents that can help prove an individual who doesn't have a primary ID is eligible to vote.

Primary IDs are defined by law as federal or state government-issued documents that include an individual's name and photo. That list currently includes student IDs along with other options such as driver's licenses, military IDs and county-issued voter IDs, which can be obtained for free at your county clerk's office.

If a voter is unable to provide a primary ID at their polling location, they could still be eligible to vote if they have a secondary ID, including credit and debit cards (Southworth's bill would remove them from that list), Social Security cards, food stamp or EBT cards, any county-issued ID that has the voter's name on it or any other photo ID with the voter's name.

That secondary ID would need to be presented and is only eligible to be used if the voter has another impediment to voting. That list includes lack of transportation, inability to obtain a birth certificate or other similar documents, a work schedule that prevents obtaining a primary ID, lost or stolen primary ID, disability or illness, family responsibilities, a religious objection to being photographed, or if the voter has applied for a primary ID but has not yet received it.

Under SB 80, student IDs from colleges in the state would no longer be listed as a primary ID but could be used as a secondary ID. A credit or debit card would not be eligible as a primary or secondary ID.

Support for SB 80

Southworth has put forward several bills dealing with election security during her time in the legislature, and most have failed to land any significant support from either the GOP or Democrats. She's been criticized by Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, who said she "has no reputation or credibility in the legislature" in a 2022 interview with Kentucky Fried Politics.

SB 80, though, has the backing of high-ranking members of her party, including Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, who has also criticized Southworth in previous years but has openly supported her voter ID bill.

"Here in Kentucky, we've got pretty strong election laws and I trust the integrity of our elections here," he said on the Senate floor during a discussion about the bill, which has five co-sponsors other than Southworth. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps to improve it."

Southworth said claims that her bill would totally remove student IDs as a form of voter identification is "essentially misinformation, disinformation, patently false, fake news, whatever you want to call it," as those documents would still qualify as a secondary ID.

Opposition to SB 80

Others in Frankfort aren't as convinced.

Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, repeatedly described SB 80 as "a solution in search of a problem" when the bill was first discussed in a committee meeting, where it advanced to the Senate on a party-line vote. And in a separate speech in the chamber before it was taken up, she said it "makes it harder to vote – and most concerningly to me, it makes it harder for our young people to vote."

College-aged interns she's spoken to have said how difficult it is to get a student ID, she added, as tax documentation and other information is required in order to be issued one. Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, noted student IDs are used to access buildings on college campuses – schools know who they're issuing them to, she said.

Adams, meanwhile, has said he believes the bill could get the state's photo ID law struck down.

"Also, as a Republican, Secretary Adams believes his party should be careful not to gratuitously alienate young voters like college students by taking away their ability to use college Photo IDs in the absence of any evidence they have been used fraudulently," his spokesperson Michon Lindstrom added.

Southworth has said she is not aware of any cases where a fraudulent college ID was used in an attempt to vote in Kentucky, as she doesn't have "access to all of the investigations that are going on," and she's not aware of any such cases in other states. But she said she's heard from constituents who live near schools who expressed concerns, and noted many Kentucky college students are actually residents of other states who could attempt to use a student ID to vote in the Bluegrass State despite being ineligible.

"We don't write laws because stuff's already happened," she said. "We write laws trying to prevent problems from happening."

Where it stands

SB 80 was approved by the Senate State and Local Government Committee on a 9-2 vote on Jan. 24 and passed the full Kentucky Senate on a 27-7 vote on Jan. 30.

It has yet to be taken up by the House. If approved in that chamber, it would go to Gov. Andy Beshear for approval.

Beshear, a Democrat, may veto it, but Republicans have a supermajority in the legislature and could override his veto with at least 51 votes in the House and 20 votes in the Senate.

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Republicans back bill cutting student IDs as primary voter ID