New Law Accepts Some Photocopies But Not Others to Prove Citizenship for Voter Registration

The League of Women Voters and other friends of democracy told an under-quorumed Board of Elections Tuesday to let county auditors accept photocopies of official ID cards as proof of citizenship for registering voters:

A new South Dakota law now requires people to document that they are U.S. citizens when they register to vote.

But the South Dakota League of Women Voters wants the state Elections Board to change its administrative rules.

The league wants county auditors to be allowed to accept photocopies of driver licenses, tribal identification cards and nondriver ID cards as proof of citizenship.

The new law, Senate Bill 175, recognizes those documents as proof but doesn’t specifically allow for photocopies of them.

…Melisa McCauley, representing the South Dakota Network Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said the new law can disenfranchise survivors of domestic abuse who have fled their homes, because in some cases they won’t be able to retrieve the documents needed to prove they are citizens. “Voting is more than casting a ballot,” she said. “We should be making it easier for eligible citizens to participate in democracy, not more difficult.”

Angie Cleberg of Aberdeen is the communication and impact coordinator United Way of Northeast South Dakota. She read a statement from a domestic violence survivor. “Replacing these documents is not always simple,” she said [Bob Mercer, “Groups Push Back on New Voter-Registration Law,” KELO-TV, updated 2026.07.01].

I’d sure like the Board of Elections to counter the Republican Legislature’s push to make it harder for people to participate in democracy, but in this case, the new law is clear. Section 3 of Senate Bill 175 lays out these documentary requirements:

Any individual applying to register as a voter shall provide documentation, along with the application, to demonstrate that the individual is a United States citizen. The individual shall present:

1. The individual’s South Dakota driver license or nondriver identification card, provided that the license or identification card was issued after July 1, 2025, and indicates that the individual has provided sufficient documentation to demonstrate that the individual is a United States citizen;
2. A valid driver license or nondriver identification card issued by any other state or territory of the United States, provided that the license or identification card indicates that the individual has provided sufficient documentation to demonstrate that the individual is a United States citizen;
3. The individual’s tribal identification card; or
4. A legible photocopy of:
   1. The individual’s birth certificate;
   2. The pages of the individual’s United States passport, which identify the applicant and show the individual’s passport number;
   3. A consular report of birth abroad issued by the United States Department of State for the individual;
   4. The individual’s certificate of naturalization; or
   5. Any other type of acceptable documentary evidence of citizenship permitted under 42 C.F.R. § 436.407 (January 1, 2026).

If an individual provides a copy of the individual’s certificate of naturalization, the county auditor must verify the number of the certificate of naturalization with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service [2026 SB 175, as passed and enacted 2026.03.26].

Driver licenses, other state IDs, and tribal IDs are listed in the first three subsections of Section 3. The photocopy allowance does not come until subsection 4 and thus only applies to the subsequent sub-subs (a)–(e). We cannot apply #4’s photocopy allowance back past #3’s or. The Board of Elections cannot rewrite that statute to insert “or a legible photocopy of” into subsections 1, 2, and 3.

If the state can accept photocopies of passports and birth certificates as proof of citizenship, it should be able to accept photocopies of any official identification papers. But if we want to rectify this burdensome inconsistency, we have to elect legislators who will promise to do so in the 20267 Session.