Students heading to polling places on Nov. 3 shouldn’t rely on their student IDs: The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a New Hampshire law that says those IDs cannot be used as a valid form of identification when registering to vote or voting itself.
In a brief ruling Thursday, the court upheld a state law passed this spring that removed student IDs from the list of valid forms of identification for obtaining a ballot. Many in the Republican Party have long sought to limit voting by college students, who generally are more likely to vote for Democrats, arguing that they don’t have any real connection to the community where the college exists and therefore shouldn’t have a say in how that community operates.
The issue went to the nation’s highest court because in October, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante upheld the law in general but blocked the Secretary of State’s guidance that barred election officials from considering student IDs as a secondary form of ID.
The Secretary of State’s office objected to that ruling, and the attorney general’s office appealed it to the Supreme Court.
The court ruling relied on the Purcell principle, a long-standing rule that federal courts should not alter election rules on the eve of an election to avoid voter confusion and disruption. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the lower court’s order was targeted to address misinformation rather than changing a rule.
Without a student ID, it’s unclear how out-of-state college students can show that they are residents of New Hampshire and vote, since those who live in dorms don’t have the usual secondary evidence of residence, such as utility bills.
