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Assessing Claims About Kamala Harris Winning States Without Voter ID Laws
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Assessing Claims About Kamala Harris Winning States Without Voter ID Laws

Social media users suggest falsely that she won every state in which voters do not need identification.

A poll worker checks a voter's ID on November 5, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

Donald Trump won the 2024 election, but that has not stopped right-wing media outlets and social media users from making misleading claims about election integrity.

Last Thursday, Newsmax host Carl Higbie aired a map showing the states that Vice President Kamala Harris won and highlighted that nearly all of them do not require voters to present identification. “I find it funny that almost all the states that Harris won don’t require photo ID,” Higbie said. “Wow, wow. It’s almost like where it’s easier to cheat, the cheaters win. I never would have thought,” Shawn Farash, a right-wing internet podcaster who joined Higbie on-air, reacted. “I never would have thought.” 

On Sunday, Elon Musk tweeted out an image of the Newsmax map. “Must be a coincidence,” he wrote, along with an eye-roll emoji. “Dear President-elect Trump,” Hollywood actor James Woods also tweeted with the image. “We need government issued FREE photo ID required for all federal elections. This must be enacted, or we will be right back in the socialist hell you just saved us from.”

The Newsmax map shows Harris winning two states that require photo ID, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That has not stopped social media users from claiming that Harris won only states with no voter ID laws, nor from saying that she won every state with no photo ID. Neither claim is true. 

“Harris won the states with no voter ID requirements,” one X user, Dennis Michael Lynch—a self-described “unapologetic truth teller”—tweeted Sunday with the Newsmax map. “Democrats won every NO ID REQUIRED state,” another X user tweeted with the image. “Democrats win the States without Voter ID,” tweeted another X user, “Publius,” to his more than 60,000 followers. 

In reality, Harris won some states that do require photo ID, and Trump won some that did not. 

In total, 26 states do not require a photo ID in order to vote. Of those, 15 do not require any ID and 11 require some form of non-photo identification. Harris won 13 of the 15 states that have no ID requirement, and won four of the 11 states that require non-photo identification. Meanwhile, Trump won two of the 15 states that require no ID whatsoever—Nevada and Pennsylvania—and won seven of the 11 states that accept non-photo IDs, including Arizona, Iowa, and West Virginia. 

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

Peter Gattuso is a fact check reporter for The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2024, he interned at The Dispatch, National Review, the Cato Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When Peter is not fact-checking, he is probably watching baseball, listening to music on vinyl records, or discussing the Jones Act.

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