A bill cleared a Kentucky Senate committee on Wednesday that would restrict more forms of secondary identification that can be used by voters to cast a ballot in Kentucky elections — even though state records show only a tiny fraction of voters use them.
The Kentucky General Assembly passed a law in 2020 requiring voters to have valid identification with their photo on it in order to vote, but also allowed secondary forms of identification if they signed an affidavit affirming their identity.
Last year, lawmakers passed a law to exclude credit cards with the voter’s name as a valid secondary identification, and Senate Bill 154 that advanced Wednesday would also strike social security and food assistance cards from the list of acceptable secondary IDs under the 2020 law.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield told lawmakers in committee that her bill is needed to strengthen Kentucky’s voter ID law, as these secondary forms of identification do not have the voter’s photo on them.
Tichenor noted that 10 other states have a strict law requiring a photo ID in order to vote, and her SB 154 “would get us in line with some other states, and really in line with a stronger system to have identification for our voters.”
But according to records from the State Board of Elections obtained by Kentucky Public Radio, it is extremely rare that Kentucky voters use social security cards and food assistance cards — also called food stamps, EBT or supplemental nutrition assistance cards — as their identification when voting.
State records show that of the nearly two million people who voted in-person in Kentucky’s 2024 general election, 99.3% used their driver’s license as a primary ID, while another .5% used another valid form of photo ID, such as a passport, military ID or college ID.
Only 981 voters in 2024 used their Social Security card as a form of secondary ID (less than half of a tenth of a percent of all voters), and just 67 used their EBT or food assistance card.
Democratic Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong of Louisville brought up those same figures from the 2024 elections, asking if there is any evidence that people are using fraudulent Social Security and EBT cards in order to vote.
Tichenor said Kentucky currently has no active cases of voter ID fraud involving social security or food assistance cards, but said EBT cards are often illegally transferred and identity fraud involving Social Security across the country is “rampant.”
“The potential for fraud exists,” Tichenor said. “So this would eliminate that potential for fraud.”
Chambers Armstrong voted against the bill, saying it doesn’t make sense to take away a legal form of voting that was used by more than 1,000 Kentuckians in the last election cycle if there was no evidence of any fraud.
“It's really essential to democracy that everybody have the ability to vote,” Chambers Armstrong said. “And it concerns me that every year we're seeing laws pass through this body that make it more difficult to vote, despite not having any evidence that there's a problem that we're trying to solve.”
The law passed by the legislature last year prohibited credit cards with the voter’s name from being a valid secondary ID. That form of ID was also used rarely in the 2024 election — by just 470 of the two million voters.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the 2025 bill, saying it would make it harder for Kentuckians to vote, but that veto was overridden by the Republican-dominated legislature.
Nick Storm, a spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, said Kentucky’s top election official was neutral on the bill, as it would have a very small effect on both voters and election security.
“Secretary Adams believes the bill, if enacted, would not make much difference because hardly any voters use social security cards or public benefit cards under his Photo ID to Vote law,” Storm said. “Typically 98% of voters use a driver’s license as qualifying Photo ID. He is neutral on the bill because it would not appreciably protect election security or harm voters.”
Adams opposed a bill in 2024 that would have prohibited student identification cards with a photo from being considered a valid primary form of voter ID, saying it would increase the chances that the entire voter ID law would be struck down in the courts.
State election records show that while it is very rare that voters use secondary ID cards, it most often occurs in rural Appalachian counties, on a per capita basis.
Just more than 1% of voters in Martin County — 35 in total — used a social security card as their form of ID in the 2024 election, with .4% of voters doing so in Breathitt and Lee counties.
Voters in Menifee County were the most likely to use both EBT cards or credit cards as their identification in that election, at .07% and .2%, respectively.
