“Voter ID was bipartisan then. It should be bipartisan now,” Defend Forgotten America Executive Director Jenn Pellegrino noted Thursday, sharing 2005 video of then-President Jimmy Carter stressing the need for voters to show “some form of photo ID” in order to cast their ballots.
“He even described Voter ID as ‘a move forward in getting more people to vote,’” Pellegrino wrote in a social media post introducing the video of Pres. Carter at a press event touting his plan to ensure election integrity.
In the video, Pres. Carter said there should be “some form of photo ID required. Voter ID.” That ID should be free and states should actively try to issue it to as many people as possible, he said. Under the plan, voter ID would be “Uniformly applied throughout the country and it will be non-discriminatory,” Carter said.
Carter was detailing recommendations from his administration’s “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections” report produced by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, of which Pres. Carter and then-Secretary of State James A. Baker, III were co-chairs.
In the report’s introduction, Carter and Baker explain why the study was needed:
“Our Commission on Federal Election Reform was formed to recommend ways to raise confidence in the electoral system. Many Americans thought that one report — the Carter-Ford Commission — and one law — the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) — would be enough to fix the system. It isn’t. In this report, we seek to build on the historic achievement of HAVA and put forward a bold set of proposals to modernize our electoral system.”
Ironically, the Democrat president’s report makes the same points that today’s Republicans are making to refute Democrats’ opposition to passing the photo ID requirement in the Save America Act, which they are currently filibustering in the Senate:
“The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters. Photo IDs currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check. Voting is equally important.”
What’s more, the report finds that a photo ID document must provide proof of U.S. citizenship “if the card is to be used for voting purposes.”
“The most common problems on Election Day concern voter registration,” Carter’s report explains:
“Voter registration lists often are riddled with inaccuracies because Americans are highly mobile, and local authorities, who have maintained most lists, are poorly positioned to add and delete names of voters who move within or between states.”
….
“A complete, accurate, and current voter roll is essential to ensure that every eligible citizen who wants to vote can do so, that individuals who are ineligible cannot vote, and that citizens cannot vote more than once in the same election. A voter registration list must contain all eligible voters (including new registrants) and must contain correct information concerning the voter’s identity and residence.”
“These steps could help bring to an end the sterile debate between Democrats and Republicans on access versus integrity,” the Carter-Baker report concluded at the time.
Jimmy Carter in 2005 on voter ID: "It will not restrict people from voting."
He even described Voter ID as “a move forward in getting more people to vote."
Republicans need to share this video far and wide. Voter ID was bipartisan then. It should be bipartisan now. pic.twitter.com/szZarfscjw— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) August 6, 2026
