Kamala Harris did not only win states without voter ID requirements

The claim that the US election saw the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris win every state that doesn’t require voter ID and none that do is being shared widely on social media. But this is not correct—she did win some states that generally require ID, while President-elect Donald Trump won some states that don’t generally require ID.  

One post with more than 23,000 shares on X (formerly Twitter) says: “Kamala won EVERY SINGLE state that doesn’t require voter ID….She didn’t win a SINGLE state that requires it. It’s insane that this is just being ignored.” The post includes a map showing voter ID laws across US states (compiled by the website Ballotpedia) alongside a map showing the 2024 presidential election results. 

The same claim has been shared in other posts, sometimes with identical text, on X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads. 

Both parts of this claim are incorrect.

Ms Harris did not win “every single state that doesn’t require ID”, because Mr Trump won both Pennsylvania and Nevada, which generally do not require ID for in-person voting. (First time voters need ID to vote in these two states, as well as in some other cases in Nevada.)

It’s also worth noting that there are states won by Mr Trump that generally require ID to vote in person but allow one or more election officials, and in some cases another registered voter, to confirm a voter’s identity if they don’t have it, including Alabama and Iowa. 

And there are some other exceptions for voter ID requirements in states won by Mr Trump that generally require ID, such as religious objections to being photographed, not having an ID due to a recent natural disaster, and victims of domestic abuse who have been granted permission to be “confidential electors”. 

It’s also incorrect to say Ms Harris didn’t win a single state that needs ID to vote. She won in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, which both require photo ID to vote in person. Unless an election official can confirm a voter’s identity in New Hampshire, voters without ID in these states have to cast a provisional ballot.

A provisional ballot is used when a potential voter’s eligibility is uncertain on polling day and so their vote is not counted until it has been confirmed. A voter must complete an affidavit—a sworn statement attesting to their qualifications to vote—to complete a provisional ballot.

Most states allow people to cast provisional ballots, though Idaho, which Mr Trump won, and Minnesota, which Ms Harris won, don’t. 

Other states won by Ms Harris, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware and Virginia, ask for ID to vote in person, but voters who don’t have ID can still cast a regular vote by signing a statement confirming their identity. This is also the case for some states won by Mr Trump, including Idaho, Michigan, and Louisiana. 

Several states taken by Ms Harris that do not typically require ID may ask to see or require a form of identification from some first time voters, including California, New Mexico, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland.

We’ve fact checked many claims relating to the US presidential election both during the campaign and since polling day. We’ve recently written about false claims that 20 million votes have “gone missing”, Mr Trump called Republicans the “dumbest group of voters”, and that the Houthis (a Yemeni militant group) had stopped their operations in international waters after Mr Trump’s victory.