Voter ID laws have finally passed, but in Somalia. Somalia has taken a step this year toward a “one person, one vote” electoral system with mandatory voter identification to ensure that each individual can cast only one ballot. Federal authorities took it a step further and have now moved toward biometric voter IDs and registration that tie citizenship documentation to the right to vote. It is ironic, bordering on the absurd, that a nation once synonymous with conflict and corruption would implement a measure to strengthen the legitimacy of elections, while in the United States, voter ID is considered suppression.
In April 2025, Rep. Ilhan Omar criticized the Republican-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, calling it a “voter suppression bill” that “will disenfranchise millions of voters, especially married women.” Yet, her home country, whose interests she represents while acting as a US Congresswoman, has these very laws in place.
Critics of Mogadishu are not decrying voter ID as racist or exclusionary. There is only recognition that ,without identification, votes cannot be tied to citizens in a trustworthy way.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota (the very district Omar represents), debates rage over whether a system that allows voters to “vouch” for others without standard ID verification undermines ballot security.
The hypocrisy emerges when public figures decry voter ID in the United States as suppression, while their country of origin demands identification as essential to participation. If voter ID is suppression in the US, what label should we give to nations that refuse identification and invite chaos?
In Mogadishu, citizens and officials alike seem to understand that without identification, elections are hollow and easily manipulated. That understanding is missing in the United States’ current discourse. Whether because of ideological reflexes or political calculus, there is a failure to reconcile the principles that are celebrated in the abstract “everybody should vote” with the practical mechanics that make every vote credible.
To build trust, you require verification; to maintain legitimacy, you enforce verification; to protect rights, you protect the process. Somalia’s move toward biometric voter IDs and universally recognized citizen ballots should be a wake-up call to American policymakers. If a nation emerging from decades of instability can adopt measures to secure its elections, then there is no principled reason why the US cannot do the same.
