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Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025

Do standard driver’s licenses prove US citizenship?

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
no

Standard driver’s licenses are not proof of U.S. citizenship.

Enhanced driver’s licenses, which require documents such as a birth certificate or passport, provide proof. Intended for use in U.S. border crossing by vehicle, they are available in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington.

Citizenship is required to vote in federal, state and the vast majority of local elections. 

To register to vote, people in Wisconsin and most states must declare citizenship, under penalty of perjury. Proof isn’t required.

A 2024 lawsuit sought to require the Wisconsin Elections Commission to verify citizenship for voting. The commission argued that no state law requires citizenship proof.

A judge Oct. 3 ordered the commission to determine whether any noncitizens are registered to vote and to stop accepting voter registrations without verifying citizenship. The state is challenging the order.

Audits have found that very few registered voters are noncitizens.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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