How Transgender Voters Are Fighting to Make Their Votes Count
Fears of discrimination and photo ID laws can keep trans and gender non-conforming people away from the polls. More mail-in voting this year could help.
A "Photo ID Required Today" sign hangs at the entrance of a polling location during the presidential primary vote in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 2016. The spread of voter ID laws could disenfranchise transgender people, advocates say.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergOf the estimated 1.4 million adults who identify as transgender in the U.S., nearly a million are eligible to vote. But according to a study published by UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute in February of this year, about 42% of those voters could face barriers to casting a ballot in November, because they lack photo IDs that match their gender or their correct name.
The risk of disenfranchisement is highest in the 35 states that require voters to show some form of ID at the polls, ranging from utility bills to government-issued photo IDs in the strictest states. Voter ID laws have proliferated since 2006, ostensibly to prevent cases of voter fraud (which is exceedingly rare). Critics of the strict requirements say they can end up disenfranchising low-income, Black, and Latino voters, as well as other vulnerable groups.