Maine’s voter ID proposal is a poll tax in disguise

By Jeff Reichman

Democracy • February 4, 2025

In November, voters in Maine will face a decision that will reshape how the state conducts its elections. A partisan effort to promote a voter ID ballot initiative has garnered 170,000 signatures, thrusting Maine into a national debate that has intensified over the past decade. 

As one of just fourteen states that don’t require voter ID, Maine stands at a crossroads. The voters must weigh questions of election security against the potential impact on voter participation.

The stakes are high. Maine is a national leader in voter turnout. This reflects a system that has prioritized accessibility while maintaining security through other means, such as requiring identification during the voter registration process.

While proponents argue that requiring photo identification is a common-sense measure to ensure election integrity, the evidence suggests this solution addresses a nonexistent problem. 

Studies from the Brennan Center for Justice prove that fraudulent in-person voting is extraordinarily rare – the chances of this happening are even more rare than getting hit by lightning.

Meanwhile, the proposed requirements will create significant barriers for a lot of people. As Maine voters consider this proposal, they face a fundamental question: how do we balance the perceived need for security against disenfranchising people?

I wanted to quantify this argument and pull it out of the realm of anecdotal evidence. Through this blog, I explore how this proposal makes voting exceptionally difficult for two segments of Maine’s population: the rural elderly and students.

Disenfranchising older people in rural areas

The voter ID proposal will create significant barriers for Maine’s rural elderly population, threatening their fundamental right to participate in elections. It curtails absentee voting by limiting ballot drop boxes and adds a new in-person requirement: a state-issued ID. 

Nearly 350,000 Mainers – more than a quarter of the state’s population – live over thirty minutes from their nearest BMV or AAA office where they can obtain or renew state-issued identification. 

Among them are 87,000 seniors over age 65, many of whom face additional challenges in making these journeys. Many seniors have limited mobility, making the trip to the nearest BMV/AAA location particularly difficult. Those who can’t drive themselves must rely on family members or friends.

Using publicly available Census/ACS data, locations of BMV/AAA sites where identification can be renewed, and the Google Distance Matrix, I was able to determine the drive time and distance from the center of each Census block group to the closest ID renewal location. You can view the data for yourself in the map below.

The combination of travel costs, time investment, and potential need for assistance effectively creates a modern equivalent of a poll tax for many rural seniors. Poll taxes are a direct violation of the 24th amendment. What makes this particularly insidious is that Mainers have been able to exercise this right to vote without cost or issue for decades, and that will change drastically if the voter ID ballot initiative passes.

The challenges facing Maine’s rural seniors highlight a crucial flaw in the voter ID proposal: it imposes uniform requirements without accounting for the state’s diverse geography and population distribution. While obtaining ID might be a minor inconvenience for urban residents, it is a major obstacle for rural elderly Mainers.

Threatening student participation at Maine universities

The proposed voter ID law threatens student voting rights in Maine, undermining the state’s inclusive same-day registration system that has helped drive its nation-leading turnout rates. For thousands of college students originally from other states, voting in Maine has been a critical part of their political engagement.

Under the proposed requirements, these students are out of luck. Their home state ID wouldn’t satisfy Maine’s voter ID requirement, yet obtaining a Maine ID might be impossible. Students often maintain their home state driver’s licenses for insurance purposes or family obligations. The process of obtaining a Maine state ID requires proof of residency and surrendering their home state license. For a student living in a dorm or temporary housing, that might be too much to ask.

The timing of elections makes this even more difficult. With most major elections occurring during academic semesters, students can’t really go home to vote. Additionally, many states have increasingly restricted absentee voting options. Maine’s current system recognizes this reality by allowing students to establish voting residency where they spend the majority of their year. The proposed ID requirements would end this practice.

This is a shame. Maine’s college students have a 45% voter turnout among thirteen participating campuses, which is significantly higher than the national average of 31%. In 2020, the University of Maine reported that 85% of its students were registered to vote, and 73% participated in the election. The barriers presented by this voter ID proposal will effectively strip away voting rights for many of these students, and we can expect these numbers to decline significantly. 

Preventing voter suppression in Maine

The push for voter ID in Maine reflects a disturbing trend of solutions in search of a problem. The existing system already requires identification during voter registration, making additional ID checks at the polls redundant. 

The short answer is that this proposal must be defeated at the ballot box in order to protect the voting rights of these populations.

However, if Maine voters approve this measure, there are a few safeguards that can be implemented to mitigate the damage:

1. Maine must broaden acceptable forms of identification beyond state-issued IDs. Student IDs from accredited institutions should be valid for voting, acknowledging students’ legitimate participation in their college communities.
2. The state should accept expired identification cards, recognizing that the expiration of an ID doesn’t invalidate a person’s identity or right to vote.
3. To serve rural communities, Maine must establish satellite ID renewal locations, particularly in areas more than 30 minutes from current DMV offices. Mobile ID services could reach homebound elderly residents.

Maine’s democracy thrives because of accessible voting procedures that maintain both security and participation. As voters consider this ballot proposal, they must weigh whether these additional barriers truly serve the state’s democratic traditions. The evidence suggests they do not.