Bill sets nondriver ID as allowable when registering to vote

By: 
Dana Hess, Community News Service
PIERRE — A bill that will allow a nondriver identification number to be used for voter registration got quite a discussion Jan. 23 in a meeting of the House Local Government Committee. 
Currently a South Dakotan can register to vote using a driver’s license number, the last four digits of a Social Security number or by signing a statement at the county auditor’s office saying they don’t have any of those numbers. Some committee members questioned being able to just sign a statement to register to vote.
“That’s telling me someone who has not been identified can register to vote,” said Rep. Tina Mulally, R-Rapid City.
Kea Warne, elections director in the Secretary of State’s office, said in her 24 years in the office only one person had signed such a statement. Anyone who signs a statement does so under a penalty of perjury, Warne said
“We’ve only had one person ever go and do that,” Warne said. 
Rep. Marty Overweg, R-New Holland, wondered how anyone in the United States gets by without a Social Security number. 
Warne explained that some new citizens are given a federal tax number rather than a Social Security number.
While HB1054 adds nondriver identification numbers to the acceptable ID for registering to vote, Rep. Kelly Sullivan, D-Sioux Falls, asked if tribal identification could be used. 
“We have no way to validate the number” on a tribal ID, Warne said. “Their tribal IDs are not the same throughout the state.”
Mulally said it seemed odd that it takes two forms of identification to get a driver’s license, but only one to register to vote. State law doesn’t require two forms of ID to register to vote, Warne said. 
The bill was endorsed by the committee on a 10-1 vote. It now goes to the full House.

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