Three states bar student IDs at polls as courts weigh challenges

Judge rules Indiana student-ID ban likely unconstitutional

Those state laws come amid President Trump’s so-far failed push for a Republican plan to overhaul voting in federal elections in every state, including a proposal that would not allow in-person voters to use student IDs. New Hampshire’s legislature passed its student ID ban as part of a slate of bills “adding security and transparency” to the state’s elections, as the House Republican caucus put it.

Legal challenges are already moving through the courts. This month, the Coalition for Open Democracy, a voter advocacy group, filed suit against New Hampshire’s law, arguing it unconstitutionally burdens eligible students’ right to vote and discriminates against younger voters for their age. Voting rights advocates are adding another item to their agenda ahead of this fall’s midterm election — helping students navigate these latest hurdles to the ballot box for the U.S. voting-age group least likely to vote.

A federal judge concluded in April that Indiana’s ban “looks more like a solution in search of a problem” and is likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Richard Young, a nominee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote that by no longer accepting student IDs as voter identification, Indiana officials “selectively excluded a form of identification that otherwise complies with the neutral criteria established by Indiana’s voter ID law and that has been accepted as a form of voter identification for nearly two decades.” The ruling came in a case brought by the voter advocacy group Count US IN. Young’s finding is now paused and under review by a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Supporters of the bans have argued the new rules promote election security. In court filings, attorneys for Republican state officials defending Indiana’s ban wrote that the law is needed to increase public confidence and streamline the photo ID requirement “to make the acceptable forms of identification more uniform, objective, and verifiable.” The sponsor of the Indiana legislation, Republican state Sen. Blake Doriot, told a January hearing: “The last thing I want to do is to keep people from voting. The first thing I want to do is to keep people from voting who shouldn’t be voting, who do not have the proper ID.”

It is unclear how many voters have used student IDs to check in at polling places, since local election officials generally do not keep records of the type of identification voters present. And there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud involving student IDs.

Student voting advocates say the patchwork of state voter ID laws can trip up many of the country’s least experienced voters. About three dozen states have in-person voter ID laws. In North Carolina, colleges and universities must secure approval from the state board of elections before their student IDs can be accepted as voter identification. In Georgia, only student IDs from public institutions are permitted — a restriction that excludes seven of the state’s 10 historically Black colleges and universities, including Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.

For students who lose access to a student ID as voter identification, obtaining a state-issued ID can present its own challenges. “Young people are much less likely to obtain a driver’s license, more broadly speaking, than in prior generations,” said Michelle Kanter Cohen, policy director at the Fair Elections Center, a voting rights group. “Some of that is because of ride-sharing, financial issues and just their life circumstances.”

Securing the supporting documents required for a state ID — such as a birth or naturalization certificate or U.S. passport — can also be a hurdle, according to Kristen Rodriguez, a Florida-based organizer for VoteRiders, an advocacy group that helps eligible people obtain IDs so they can cast ballots. “It takes a lot of time to get those documents. And in some states, a birth certificate takes six to eight months to come,” Rodriguez said. “It’s usually a series of unfortunate events that lead someone to be without the documents that they need.”

With Florida’s ban not set to take effect until 2027, Rodriguez said her organization sees an opportunity now to encourage eligible students to bring whatever documents they have to campus so VoteRiders can help them obtain a Florida ID. “It’s about really making sure that as many people know this as possible, as early as possible, so that we have enough time to get all of those documents in place before any sort of voting, registration deadlines,” she added.

At Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., students are already adjusting. Lia Symer, a senior about to start her final year, recalled voting in the 2024 election by checking in with her student ID card. “I tend to not carry my driver’s license on my person when I’m walking around campus. Most students just carry their student IDs to get into buildings,” she said.

Symer helps lead a student civics group working on new ways to inform eligible voters on campus about the New Hampshire ban — a change she noted also affects high schoolers who are eligible to vote. “It’s just taking away an avenue for participation in our democracy,” she said.

Will Nelson, another fourth-year student and co-president of Dartmouth Civics Association, said he is concerned about the ban’s longer-term effects on civic participation. “College is a very formative time for young minds and the civic traditions that you pick up. And we certainly hope that as many of our peers as possible will be lifelong voters for whomever they choose to vote,” Nelson said. “We’re just sad to see that some of our policymakers have decided to make it a little bit more difficult for us to participate in that storied tradition.”