According to the Associated Press, the controversial law requires North Dakota residents to show identification with a current street address. Many residents of Native American reservations, who tend to vote for Democrats according to NPR, do not have street addresses.
Rather, they have Post Office box numbers, which do not qualify under the rules. In October, the Supreme Court declined to overturn the law.
Critics have said the street address requirement is an attempt at disenfranchisement that was enacted by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature in the wake of Democratic senator Heidi Heitkamp’s victory by a margin of less than 3,000 votes in 2012.
According to studies commissioned by Native American rights groups, roughly 35 percent of that population does not have an acceptable ID with a residential address.
The controversy is just one of several around the country, where Republicans have been accused of trying to limit of restrict access to the ballot for people of colour.