Trans people worry that voting might be harder this year with new laws. They’re also preparing.

Activists across the United States are preparing both election poll workers and transgender voters on the laws behind voting when one’s ID gender marker doesn’t match their gender expression, reports The 19th. This comes after some trans voters have expressed confusion and worry about how to best vote after states enacted harmful laws targeting trans adults’ legal identification.

“Trans people, just like everyone else, want to be able to travel, start new jobs, open bank accounts, enroll in school, vote — all of those things require some form of ID. And so when a state goes out of its way to enforce its message about its belief about sex and gender on a license, and transgender people then have to publicize that when they show other people, it creates a dangerous environment,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, an attorney for the ACLU of Tennessee.

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This becomes especially important as states like Tennessee and Nebraska issue laws restricting the definition of legal gender to sex assigned at birth. Additionally, states like Florida are restricting trans people’s ability to change their gender markers at all. Voter ID laws enact similar barriers, especially as not only trans people but also Black and Hispanic individuals continue to be less likely to have a valid driver’s license, including one that contains up-to-date information, like gender markers.

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“The states with the anti-trans laws are also the ones that are more likely to be passing anti-voter laws, full stop,” said Lauren Kunis, the CEO and executive director of VoteRiders, an organization that helps voters get government identification.

Quinn Diaz, public policy associate at Equality Florida, is one such person who is affected by this. They previously lived in Massachusetts, where they had an “X” marker on their license to signify that they’re nonbinary. However, since they didn’t have all the documents necessary nor a provider to help set things up, they had to forfeit this marker and instead go with the one associated with their sex assigned at birth. While they didn’t have a problem voting in the 2022 midterms, they nevertheless plan to vote by mail.

“I can imagine that a lot of trans folks in Florida who might not have access … to an accurate and affirming ID might not want to engage in that process at all, especially in such a heightened political environment,” they said.

Other trans people have had similar experiences, and it’s impossible to predict what exactly will happen when they vote. Many may choose not to vote at all because of worries about their ID matching their gender, which can lead to a significantly dwindled impact of trans votes in the upcoming election. This can be an especially notable issue as trans people are more likely to vote than cisgender people.

These worries are accelerated in states with a significant far-right presence. Members of the far-right are trying to infiltrate polling places in these states, as states like Florida give temporary authority to poll workers to stop someone from voting under the guise of stopping election fraud, something that has been debunked as being widespread time and time again.

“Something that’s very frustrating for us at VoteRiders is you will never be able to capture the number of people who do not feel safe voting, and who therefore stay home. And you also won’t be able to capture the people who are trans and show up to try and vote and are turned away.” Kunis said. “And we know that is happening, but it is difficult to quantify.”

Some advocates are taking more proactive measures. Lawyers for the ACLU in Kansas have written a letter to remind election workers that the gender marker on a person’s ID doesn’t have to match their gender expression. The organization is also hosting clinics in other states to help trans people understand the legal landscape when it comes to voting.

“They won’t stop me, but I can see how it would stop others,” said Hazel Krebs, a trans woman in Kansas who went to vote in the primary in March. She was prepared to explain to election workers that gender is not required information in her state for voting.

“There’s nothing these laws will do to stop me from living my best life,” she said. “It just puts my energy and passion towards making this place better for me and other trans people.”

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