No, Harris didn’t win only states without voter ID laws while Trump only won in states with them

Although Vice President Kamala Harris failed in her bid to become president, some social media posts cast doubt on the legitimacy of her success in the states she did win over President-elect Donald Trump.

"Kamala Harris only won the states that don’t require voter ID," a Nov. 10 Instagram post said. "Ironic."

In a Nov. 11 Instagram post, actor Steve Hanks said, "Kamala lost every state that requires voter ID. Kamala won every state that does not require voter ID. I’m going to say that again: Kamala did not win a single state that requires voter ID, but every state that does not require voter ID, Kamala won. See why they don’t want voter ID? You can’t cheat with voter ID."

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Let’s cut to the chase: Trump alone won in states that have strict voter ID requirements, as defined by the National Conference of State Legislatures, but he also won in states with looser laws. And claims that Harris exclusively won states without voter ID requirements flatten the nuances of the voter ID debate, ignoring state and federal laws to verify voters’ identity before they can vote in person or mail a ballot.

Voter ID laws across the country

Voter ID laws across the country are not one-size-fits-all. 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states request or require voters to show some form of ID at the polls. The remaining 14 states and Washington, D.C., require no form of identification to vote at the polls but use other methods to verify voters’ identities, such as matching voters’ signatures or asking voters for personal information. And federal law requires first-time voters to show ID when requesting mail ballots, while some states have additional ID requirements for voters mailing in ballots.

As we’ve reported, among the 36 states that do request or require some form of identification to vote in person, the laws vary widely as to whether they are strictly applied or whether a photo ID or another form of identification is accepted.

• Ten of those states have strict photo ID laws. Voters who lack acceptable photo IDs must vote a provisional ballot and take additional steps to verify their identity after Election Day for their ballot to be counted. 

• Three of those states accept other forms of identification. In Arizona, for example, a recent utility bill or bank statement is acceptable as ID. 

• In the other 23 states, voters without acceptable identification can cast a regular ballot without having to act further after Election Day. That means a voter without proper identification may sign an affidavit or poll workers may vouch for a voter’s identity.

As for mail ballots, states have different laws and procedures for verifying the identity of voters who don’t vote in person. In 22 states, voters applying for a mail ballot must show ID, provide an ID number, such as from a driver’s license, or obtain a witness or notary signature, according to the Voting Rights Lab, an organization tracking state election laws and proposed legislation. In 21 other states, voters requesting mail ballots must verify their identity using personal information, such as date of birth. The remaining seven states and Washington, D.C., have universal mail voting, so ballots are automatically sent to voters ahead of every election, without voters needing to request them.

Election officials in every state use signature verification to validate the identities of voters who cast mail ballots, the National Vote at Home Institute said.

Comparing states Harris, Trump won and voter ID laws

Next, let’s compare the states Harris and Trump won with their voter identification laws. 

Harris won: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, , New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island,  Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. and Washington state.

Some of the states Harris won don’t require documents to vote. Oregon, for example, mails a ballot to registered voters before Election Day, but it verifies voters’ identities when they register using an acceptable form of identification including a driver’s license, valid photo ID or Social Security number. 

But other states Harris won do ask for identification: Washington, Colorado, Connecticut. Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

In Washington state, identification is requested but the state holds all elections by mail, "so this provision impacts few voters," the National Conference of State Legislatures said. Colorado similarly holds elections by mail and requests ID, so its law affects in-person Election Day voters.

Photo ID is requested in Rhode Island, according to the group, and if voters don’t have one, they must vote on a provisional ballot and then election officials match their signatures against the signatures on record. 

Photo ID isn’t required in Connecticut, but identification is requested. If it’s not presented, voters must give their name, date of birth and address and sign under penalty of making a false statement.

In New Hampshire, a voter without identification must sign a challenged voter affidavit. After the election, a mailing is sent and the voter must sign and return it or risk a voter fraud investigation. 

The National Conference of State Legislatures slots states into five categories in its analysis of voter ID laws across the country: strict photo ID, strict non-photo ID, photo ID requested, ID requested; photo not required, and no document required to vote. 

Trump alone won states with strict voter ID laws, but he also won states in which photo ID and non-photo ID are requested, and two states in which no documents are required.

Strict photo ID

Arkansas (Trump)

Georgia (Trump)

Indiana (Trump)

Kansas (Trump)

Mississippi (Trump)

North Carolina (Trump)

Ohio (Trump)

Tennessee (Trump)

Wisconsin (Trump)

Strict non-photo ID

Arizona (Trump)

North Dakota (Trump)

Wyoming (Trump)

Photo ID requested

Alabama (Trump)

Florida (Trump)

Idaho (Trump)

Louisiana (Trump)

Michigan (Trump)

Missouri (Trump)

Montana (Trump)

Nebraska (Trump)

Rhode Island (Harris)

South Carolina (Trump)

South Dakota (Trump)

Texas (Trump)

ID requested; photo not required

Alaska (Trump)

Colorado (Harris)

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Connecticut (Harris)

Delaware (Harris)

Iowa (Trump)

Kentucky (Trump)

New Hampshire (Harris)

Oklahoma (Trump)

Virginia (Harris)

Utah (Trump)

Washington (Harris)

West Virginia (Trump)

No document required to vote in person

California (Harris)

Hawaii (Harris)

Illinois (Harris)

Nevada (Trump)

New Mexico (Harris)

Maine (Harris)

Maryland (Harris)

Massachusetts (Harris)

Minnesota (Harris)

New Jersey (Harris)

New York (Harris)

Oregon (Harris)

Pennsylvania (Trump)

Vermont (Harris)

Although efforts to tighten identification requirements for voting have been underway for about two decades, they accelerated after the 2020 election, when Republican lawmakers sympathetic to Trump’s false claims of voter fraud pushed for tighter voter ID requirements to combat fraud. So, it’s unsurprising that states that have stricter laws voted for the Republican presidential candidate. 

National experts, meanwhile, have said such fraud is isolated and rare. Democrats and voting rights advocates have criticized some state voter ID laws, particularly ones with narrow lists of acceptable types of ID, as overly burdensome. 

Our ruling

The Instagram post said, "Every state that does not require voter ID, Kamala won."

It’s not true that only Trump won states with voter ID laws while Harris won every state without. 

Trump won the nine states that the National Conference of State Legislatures says have strict photo ID laws, and he won the three states the group says have strict non-photo ID laws.

He also won 11 of the states in which photo ID is requested; Harris won one such state. 

Trump and Harris each won six states in which some form of identification is requested.

And Trump won two of the states the conference classifies as not requiring documents to vote; Harris won 12 such states. 

But these classifications are shorthand for a variety of voter ID requirements and verifications process across the country, including verifying voters’ identities when they register to vote in states in which they automatically receive a mail ballot. Social media posts lumping Harris with states that purportedly don’t require identification and Trump with those that do lose that nuance.

We rate this claim False.