Voter ID in Kansas and Tennessee

Voters in Tennessee and Kansas recently cast their first ballots under new state laws requiring that they present photo IDs at the polls.

On February 28, nearly 27,000 Wichita, Kansas voters (of nearly 200,000 registered voters) cast ballots on a local ballot question involving whether the developers of a local hotel would get to keep part of future guest-tax income. Of these, 28 cast provisional ballots because they did not have the proper ID. Voters had several days after the election to provide ID to the county elections office in person or by mail. Of these, nine voters provided copies of the required identification, all by mail, leaving 17 ballots that had to be rejected for lack of ID.

During the March 6 Tennessee presidential primaries, more than 625,000 ballots were cast, the vast majority of which—more than 87 percent—were cast in the Republican race. These included 285 provisional ballots cast by voters who did not bring the proper photo ID to the polls. Data were not available on how many of these voters ultimately provided identification.