Priorities USA Supports Lawsuit Challenging Second Attempt by Nevada Republicans to Impose Strict Voter ID Requirements

August 26, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, Priorities USA announced its support for a lawsuit filed by a Nevada voter in response to a petition filed by Republican State Senate candidate Raja Mourey and R.I.S.E. Nevada which seeks to create a new photo ID requirement for in-person voting, limit acceptable IDs that voters can present to cure a mismatched signature and require the state to provide free photo IDs to voters who don’t have photo IDs bearing their signatures.

This is the second time Priorities has supported a lawsuit to block similar efforts. Republicans in Nevada attempted to file a nearly identical petition in May but the court blocked it in July, finding that it constituted an unfunded mandate in violation of the Nevada Constitution. There is no valid justification for these restrictions, the result of which would be the disenfranchisement of lawful voters in Nevada.

The complaint, supported and funded by Priorities USA, and brought by plaintiff Emily Persaud-Zamora, points out that the initiative contains the same problem as the prior attempt to enact voter suppression requirements: although the petition requires the Secretary to furnish IDs to certain categories of voters, it does so without raising any revenue to cover those costs, which could run into the millions of dollars. 

“It’s clear that Republicans will stop at nothing to suppress access to the ballot for lawful voters, specifically voters of color,” said Aneesa McMillan, Deputy Executive Director of Priorities USA. “The Nevada GOP has failed to pass voter suppression laws through the democratically elected Legislature, they failed to enact a voter suppression law through a misleading ballot petition and now they are trying yet again to suppress the vote. Right-wing efforts are clearly working overtime to put voters of color at the highest risk of losing access to the ballot, and Priorities has been consistently prepared to stand up to these attempts and combat voter suppression in the courts.”

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