Following the enactment of Secretary of State Michael Adams’ policy priority, Photo ID to Vote in Kentucky, it was challenged in court by organizations including the ACLU, League of Women Voters, Louisville Urban League, Kentucky Conference of NAACP Branches in three separate federal and state cases.
As of today, all of the challenges have been withdrawn and Senate Bill 2 will go into effect.
“Photo ID is what I ran on, won on, helped write, helped pass, helped pass again over the Governor’s veto, and personally signed into law over the Governor’s veto,” Adams said. “The final step was to successfully defend Photo ID to Vote in court, and with that now achieved, it will be the law of the land.”
As part of Adams’ plan, which has been approved by Governor Andy Beshear, Senate Bill 2 will be fully implemented with two notable exceptions.
Adams’ office says that Kentucky voters who lack a Photo ID and cannot obtain one due to COVID-19 will be able to vote if they produce an approved non-photo ID and execute a written oath. The other exception is that Kentucky voters who have a Photo ID but, due to COVID-19, cannot produce a photocopy of it along with their written application for an absentee ballot will be exempted from the Photo ID requirement.
According to the Secretary of State, the absentee ballot request portal at govoteky.com makes written applications unnecessary, and the portal is linked to Kentucky’s drivers license database for purposes of ID verification.
Adams reminds Kentuckians to bring their Photo IDs when they vote in person October 13 through November 3.
