If you’re headed to the polls this November to vote in the presidential election, you might get asked to present an ID. Right now, 31 states have voter identification laws, rules that require voters to show valid identification before heading into the voting booth. Eight of those 31 have the strictest laws that require residents to show photo ID, including Wisconsin, Kansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia and New Hampshire. If you show up to vote in one of these states without one of the forms of photo ID they deem valid (a driver’s license, state-issued ID card, or military ID card) you might be forced to use a provisional ballot.
While these laws were mostly passed to cut down on voter fraud, some states have ruled voter ID laws to be discriminatory, unfairly keeping marginalized groups from casting a vote. Most of the focus is on how these laws impact African American voters, and fairly so. North Carolina’s voter ID law was ruled discriminatory against black voters after the court found the state wouldn’t accept the forms of identification most common to African American voters, ruling them out “with almost surgical precision.”
But many others face issues at the polls, particularly transgender people. Strict voter ID laws can be a big issue for a transgender person whose gender marker on their license doesn’t match their gender presentation, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. Even though gender discrepancies are not a valid reason to deny someone the right to vote, the organization prepared a handy-dandy “Voting While Trans” guide in case anyone runs into trouble.
According to the Williams Institute, voter ID laws threatened more than 25,000 transgender people in the 2012 presidential election. At the time, around 40% of transgender people who had transitioned reported not having an updated driver’s license, and 74% did not have an updated passport. Nearly 30% of transgender people who had transitioned did not have any documentation listing their current gender. That, the Williams Institute found, would likely make them ineligible to vote in numerous states with strict photo voter ID laws.
But that shouldn’t necessarily be the case. According to the “Voting While Trans” guide, as long as the relevant voter information on your ID and your registration line up, you should be able to cast a ballot. That relevant information typically includes your name and your address. In other words, how you look when you show up to vote shouldn’t matter.
“The voter you are talking to is transgender, meaning that their gender identity is different than the gender that was recorded on their birth certificate. Transgender people may not have been able to update their IDs to reflect their identity for a number of reasons,” the guide explains. “This is not illegal. As long as the relevant voter data (usually the name and address) matches one of the acceptable forms of ID, the voter has the right to vote. Please do not be distracted by gender presentation when you are evaluating a voter’s identity and eligibility to vote.”
The guide explains to poll workers that transgender voters might appear different than they do on their ID card, or even have a different gender marker than you might expect, and that’s ok. The guide also informs transgender people of their rights. It advises transgender people to bring as many forms of ID as possible, including utility bills that show the address where they’re registered to vote.
If you are transgender, check out the guide here and print out a copy to bring to the polls just in case. If you’re not transgender, tell your friends, your mom and your classmates about this guide because no one who’s registered and legally allowed to vote should be turned away on Nov. 8.
Related: This 14-Year-Old Transgender Girl’s Video Is Going Viral for the Best Reason
