Bill would eliminate voter affidavit as acceptable ID at polls
LAURA GUIDO / Idaho Capital Sun | Bonner County Daily Bee | UPDATED 1 day AGO
Lenney
An Idaho senator is bringing back a proposal to eliminate the option to use a signed affidavit to prove identity at the election polls.
Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, proposed the bill Wednesday in the Senate State Affairs Committee to repeal the part of state law that allows for registered voters to sign an affidavit to prove identity as an alternative to photo identification in order to vote.
Lenney called the voter affidavit a “loophole.”
“I would submit that there’s no valid excuse to show up last minute at the polls without an ID,” Lenney said.
He noted the Legislature in 2023 approved a bill that eliminated the use of student IDs as valid photo identification for voting or for registration, but created a no-fee ID issued by the Department of Transportation that may be used for voting.
“You can’t go to a bar without an ID and sign a piece of paper saying, ‘I swear I’m 21,’ and get and get served drinks,” Lenney said.
The Idaho Secretary of State’s Office has data on voter ID methods used from 40 of Idaho’s 44 counties, according to the office’s Communications Director Chelsea Bishop. In the November 2025 election, 587 people were recorded as using an affidavit to vote, according to the office. In the November 2024 election, 1,245 used the method.
Lenney highlighted Wednesday a very small percentage of the total voters used the method. Of the 255,197 ballots cast in the 2025 election, just .23% were recorded as doing so with the affidavit.
County election offices review all affidavits to confirm the voter’s name, address and signature against the individual’s voter record, Bishop said. Only registered voters may use the affidavit as identification at the polls, and it is a felony to provide false, erroneous or inaccurate information on voter affidavits.
Lenney introduced a similar bill last year, but it never received a hearing. In 2023, Rep. Joe Alfieri, R-Coeur d’Alene, proposed a bill to eliminate the voter affidavit, but it died in a 33-36 vote in the Idaho House of Representatives, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.