Nevadans will vote next Tuesday on Question 7 for the second time, deciding whether to add voter identification requirements to the state constitution. A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation highlights how nearly 14,000 voters had to verify their identity with election officials in 2024 to cure the signature on their mail ballots, or their votes wouldn't count. The measure comes in a state where recent elections have been decided by margins smaller than the number of ballots flagged for signature problems.
The current system depends entirely on handwriting comparisons. Nevada is among 14 states that require no documentation at polling places, verifying voters by signature alone. For mail ballots, a bipartisan team compares the envelope signature to the voter's last signature on file, and if at least two election workers spot a potential mismatch, the clerk reaches out to the voter. In 2022, Governor Joe Lombardo won by roughly 15,000 votes while Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won by about 8,000. That same year, 5,979 ballots statewide that needed a signature cure were never counted. In the 2024 presidential primary, 4,832 mail ballots required curing, but only 2,220 were fixed and tallied. As of 2025, 36 states require voters to present identification.
The report argues that a system relying on individual judgment allows a skilled forgery to pass while a legitimate voter's changing signature gets flagged. The authors write that the process "is neither secure nor fair" when it discards thousands of ballots while still depending on handwriting comparison. In 2024, Question 7 passed with 73.2 percent support and drew 179,000 signatures from all 17 counties. Because it's a proposed constitutional amendment, it must be approved in two consecutive general elections, and two years later, support remains at 67 percent.
Question 7 would require in-person voters to show one of eight forms of government-issued photo ID, including driver's licenses, passports, and tribal photo IDs. Mail voters would write down one identifying number: the last four digits of a Nevada driver's license, the last four of a Social Security number if they have no license, or the number the county clerk assigned at registration. The measure accounts for older voters by letting those 70 and over use an expired ID, while everyone else's ID can be up to four years past expiration. Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager introduced a different voter ID bill during the 2025 legislative session, but Governor Lombardo vetoed it, writing that it applied ID requirements unequally between in-person and mail voters and didn't sufficiently guarantee ballot security. The report notes that in a state where more than 541,000 mail ballots had been accepted before polls even closed in 2024, voter ID that exempts mail voting protects very little.
The report concludes that a statute can be amended in a future session, but Question 7 would put a uniform standard in the constitution where a future legislature can't weaken it on its own. Strong support for the measure shows that many Nevadans see voter ID as a clearer way to ensure voters are properly identified and give them greater confidence when they cast their ballots. In a state where close races leave little room for error, the amendment offers an objective identification check to replace a system that depends on guesswork.