Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Strict ID laws threaten transgender voting rights, study signals

Transgender voting

Turning away trans people would disproportionately hurt Democratic turnout.

Niyazz/Getty Images

Some 378,000 transgender voters could be blocked from casting ballots this fall because their names, appearances or gender identities don't match their driver's licenses or other identification, a California think tank estimates.

The figure is about one-quarter of 1 percent of the national electorate, a relatively tiny share that could nonetheless be dispositive in an extremely close presidential election — especially if trans voters get turned away in battleground states. Wisconsin, Arizona, Ohio and Georgia, for example, have some of the most restrictive laws among the 35 states requiring voters to show ID at their polling places.

"Especially in states that require an ID to be shown, this could result in some transgender voters being disenfranchised," said Jody Herman, a researcher who compiled the report released Thursday by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.


Backers of strict voter ID laws say they're needed to ward off voting fraud. Voting rights advocates say that threat is beyond minimal and that the bigger danger is the effort by GOP lawmakers to disenfranchise Democrats — particularly poor and minority voters who don't drive, don't have jobs with ID cards and move frequently.

The new study says that transgender people should be part of that concern.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Four years ago, 5 percent of the 136.7 million voters identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender — and only 14 percent told exit pollsters they'd voted for Donald Trump. So turning away trans people would disproportionately hurt Democratic turnout.

Georgia, which has two competitive Senate races this year and where Democrats hope to contest the 15 electoral votes for the first time in three decades, has an "exact match" law requiring personal information on voter applications (such as names) to precisely agree with state databases. A very similar law is on the books in Wisconsin, which Trump carried by less than a percentage point in 2016 to break a seven-election winning streak for the Democrats.

"Transgender people should not be denied their opportunity to participate in our democracy because laws and regulations around identification documents haven't kept up with reality," said Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund.

Read More

Jar full of american coins.

Jar full of american coins.

Getty Images, MariuszBlach

Congress Bill Spotlight: Suspending Pennies and Nickels for 10 Years

The Fulcrum introduces Congress Bill Spotlight, a weekly report by Jesse Rifkin, focusing on the noteworthy legislation of the thousands introduced in Congress. Rifkin has written about Congress for years, and now he's dissecting the most interesting bills you need to know about but that often don't get the right news coverage.

Trump recently discontinued production of the one-cent coin. What about the five-cent coin too?

Keep ReadingShow less
​The U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Constitution.
Getty Images, Bill Oxford

Democracy on the Edge: Take Action Now To Maintain the Constitution

Democracy is in danger. Voter suppression efforts are once again on the rise, most recently embodied in the reintroduction of the “SAVE Act.” Initially passed by the House in 2024 and revived again in April 2025, the bill proposes new identification standards for voting.

It calls to eliminate the use of driver’s licenses and state IDs and require birth certificates instead. While billed as an election integrity measure, this legislation is a thinly veiled attempt to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, particularly the elderly, minorities, and low-income Americans who may lack access to original documentation.

Keep ReadingShow less
Guatemalan workers farming tomatoes using tools provided by the UVG Climate Smart Agriculture Project.

Guatemalan workers farming tomatoes using tools provided by the UVG Climate Smart Agriculture Project.

Rolando Cifuentes Velásquez.

Seeds of Abandonment: How USAID Cuts Left Thousands of Farmers in Guatemala Struggling

Maria Lopez was thriving.

Her tomato farm in rural Guatemala was flourishing since a worker from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) came in to show her climate-smart agricultural practices in her drought-stricken community.

Keep ReadingShow less
Defining the Democracy Movement: Aditi Juneja
- YouTube

Defining the Democracy Movement: Aditi Juneja

The Fulcrum presents The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement. Scott Warren's interview series engages diverse thought leaders to elevate the conversation about building a thriving and healthy democratic republic that fulfills its potential as a national social and political game-changer. This initiative is the start of focused collaborations and dialogue led by The Bridge Alliance and The Fulcrum teams to help the movement find a path forward.

Aditi Juneja is the Executive Director of Democracy 2076, an organization dedicated to reimagining democracy for the next generation. Democracy 2076 is intentionally taking a long-range view of democracy, bringing together diverse stakeholders to explore what democracy should look like within a 50-year time horizon.

Keep ReadingShow less