LGBTQ+ advocates are raising the alarm over strict Arizona voter ID laws that were partially reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court last month. They say it inadvertently makes it harder for transgender people to vote.
A new report shows this could affect upwards of 9,000 people in Arizona, when elections are being called here by sometimes hundreds of votes.
Joseph Darius Jaafari, founder and editor in chief of LOOKOUT, is covering the story.
Conversation highlights
JOSEPH DARIUS JAAFARI: So the Supreme Court's decision reinstated an old state law that basically said that Arizona residents have to provide a state ID if they wanted to vote in local elections. And that state ID had to be either a state driver's license to say identification card or some kind of tribal ID as well. It is temporary, it could be changed, but that is something that will be in effect this coming November.
We talked about this decision on The Show when it happened, and the discussion was mainly around how most of these people on the "federal only" voters list are concentrated on college campuses in Arizona. So it seemed like this mostly might affect college kids who didn't bring their Social Security card with them or something like that. But you have found that this could also affect another and pretty large group in the state, which is trans people. Tell us how.
JAAFARI: So in Arizona, we have 30,000 trans people who are adults, and 24,400 of them are eligible to vote. The Williams Institute in UCLA found that about 40% of them don't have the proper ID to actually get out and vote. And that's because of a few different reasons. If you think about a person who is going through transition, you know, you have to actually get a licensed physician to write you a letter. You have to go to the DMV, you have to get that driver's license changed. And when you think about the people who want to go and vote, when you have to present that ID, what you are presenting to the poll worker might not be the same person that, you know, is on that ID.
And so a lot of different LGBTQ advocates and voting rights advocates are raising alarms, because the voting ID law basically says, you know, you have to present an ID. But if that ID is something other than who was standing in front of you, that will pose issues and might force the person to vote on a provisional ballot.
Now, ultimately, what is happening is that everybody is saying just vote by mail, right? You can avoid all of this by voting by mail. But, you know, we spoke with a couple of different people who said, you know, I'd like to vote in person. I've never had this problem before. You know, I want to vote in person. I like being a part of the process.
But I also have never felt the need to get my gender changed yet, because I'm early in my transition, I don't want to get my ID changed because I haven't gone through gender reassignment surgery yet. I don't have the proper, you know, doctor's note, because I haven't seen a doctor, I can't afford a doctor yet. And so they can't go through the proper legal route to get their ID changed. And so even though they are an American citizen and are eligible to vote and are registered to vote, they may not be able to vote because of this voter ID law.
So when you say 40% of this population, this adds up to quite a few people — 9,400. Is that right?
JAAFARI: Yeah, we're talking about wins within the double digits here. So even, you know, a couple 100 people who are disenfranchised or may not be able to get ou, and vote that can really tip the scales and, you know, in one person's — one candidate's favor. So when we're talking about almost 10,000 people or even 9,000 people. You know ... that's a large number who may not be able to cast a vote and be immediately counted. And the secretary of has said that, you know, everybody will be able to get a provisional ballot. And these people who may not be able to get counted and get a provisional ballot, they will obviously have to go through extra hurdles. But, you know, there's also this reality of like, if people know that they don't have the proper ID, that they may have socially transitioned, .... a trans woman doesn't look like what they look like on their ID. But they, you know, we all have had the experience of that ballot sitting on our table and then forgetting about it and then wanting to having to like drop it off or something like that. Or not filling it out, just filling it out in person. All that to say is like going to the going to the polling location with your ID. I mean, there is a bit of fear in it.
You know, we spoke to some people who kind of said like, "I don't know if I will vote if I don't vote by mail or if I've missed that deadline. I don't know if I'll feel safe or comfortable going to a polling location because the biases of the poll workers ... I don't know these people. I don't know what biases they have because, you know, my existence has been politicized right now."
What does the conversation look like within the trans community? Are people getting the word out there?
JAAFARI: Yeah, I mean, I think this is fairly new. I mean, I don't think a lot of people know about this. We publish our story and you know, just on social, there's been a lot of conversation around like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about this." This is something that nobody really ever thought about before. But there has been conversations within the community about like making sure to really prepare yourself for it. Like I said before, the conversation really has been around vote by mail. I mean, if you don't have the proper identification because you have not gone through the legal process to get your ID changed. Voting by mail is a, you know, perfectly legal and perfectly fine option.
