Student IDs soon might not be enough to enable young people to vote in Kentucky

FRANKFORT – A bill that was recommended for approval by a Senate committee Thursday would cut into the number of identification documents allowed to confirm a voter's identity in Kentucky.

If approved by the full legislature, Senate Bill 80 would remove student ID cards issued by public or private colleges from the list of eligible primary documents providing proof of identification and would no longer allow credit or debit cards from the list of secondary documents that could prove a voter's identity.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, and was moved forward in the Senate State and Local Government Committee on a party-line 9-2 vote.

Speaking with reporters after the vote at the Kentucky Capitol Annex, Southworth said she was pleased her bill had landed early support, a critical first step as it moves through the General Assembly.

"People are just getting a little more aware I think all the time of election issues, and they're thinking through possible loopholes," she said.

Southworth has in previous sessions pushed for the credit and debit card provision in her legislation to be approved. SB 80 is one of several bills related to elections she's filed this session, including other proposals aimed at establishing voter tallies, ensuring voting systems contain components exclusively produced in the U.S. and removing straight-party voting.

Southworth did not know of any specific instances where student IDs have been fraudulently used during an election, as she said she did not have access to investigations into such matters, but she said she'd heard from constituents who "lived in a community with a school" who were concerned. She said she also knows college-age teens who have told her "how fast they can create an extremely great-looking (fraudulent) credit card, student ID, so forth."

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The bill has support from Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, who co-sponsored a 2020 bill requiring voters to have a photo ID and who said SB 80 would remove "other forms of ID (that) shouldn't be acceptable at the polls."

College students from states outside the commonwealth are able to change their residence to Kentucky if they want to vote in the Bluegrass State's elections, Southworth said, and Thayer noted that 2020 legislation made free government-issued voter IDs available at county clerk's offices.

But Louisville Democratic Sens. Denise Harper Angel and Cassie Chambers Armstrong voted against the bill, with Armstrong calling it "a solution in search of a problem" and raising concerns over its potential impact on voter access.

Those two senators are joined in opposition by Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Kentucky Republican who has worked to expand early voting and who has run on a platform of making it "easy to vote and hard to cheat."

His spokesperson, Michon Lindstrom, said Adams and his staff are "concerned that this bill could get the Photo ID law struck down."

“Our Photo ID to Vote law was carefully drafted to ensure success against court challenges, and Secretary Adams was successful in three such challenges," she said in a statement. "... 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.”

While Southworth could not identify an instance where voter fraud using a student ID had taken place, she said SB 80 is a preventative measure to ensure it doesn't happen. And young voters could still use student IDs as a secondary proof of identity if it were provided at the polls along with other IDs, she said.

SB 80 will now head to the House floor.

This story may be updated.

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

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky voting laws could drop student IDs as primary document