New Hampshire’s recent changes to the state’s voting laws have impacted the people Addison Dillon sees on a daily basis.
Dillon, a New England College junior double majoring in politics and history, said his out-of-state friends are now going to great lengths to be able to vote after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld New Hampshire’s restriction on student IDs being used as identification for the polls.
“A lot of people here disagree with the administration,” he said. “I do see people who occasionally still have some support, but pretty much nearly all the people I’ve met here are very disgruntled, despite their preexisting political lean, and we have a ton of people here who are not from New Hampshire.”
The small liberal arts college in Henniker has an undergraduate population of about 1,000 students.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 323 in April, mandating government-issued IDs be used to register to vote. This means students who come here from out of state who consider New Hampshire their primary residence face new requirements.
Students with a U.S. passport or a state-issued license will still be able to vote in the Granite State. Others who come here from out of state but consider it their primary residence must provide proof of their address, which can be established through a college form if they live on campus, or a utility bill if they live off campus.
Dartmouth College provided proof of residency for all of its on-campus students directly to the Hanover town clerk.
Dillon lives in Hillsborough, the town over from Henniker where New England College is located, but he still feels strongly about the perceived restrictions this law and others have put on certain groups. A 2024 law requiring proof of citizenship for registering voters affected Dillon’s mother because of a discrepancy in her maiden and marital surnames.
“It’s being used to attack voters in general, like especially married women and trans Americans,” he said. “I think it’s just trying to cause apathy, because that’s how they [the Trump administration] run. They run off of apathy, making more moderate people just not care or too afraid to do anything.”
New England College provides voting information through pamphlets and flyers that are spread around campus for students to be up-to-date on the latest laws. The college also hosts candidate town halls and debates, free for students and local residents.
Colleen McElveen, the co-director at the college’s Civic Engagement Center, helps spread these resources for students to be more civically engaged in their communities and to hear different perspectives from the candidates.
She said the center has paid attention to the latest guidelines from the Secretary of State’s office and shared that information with students as soon as possible. That was the case when the student ID law was making its way through court.
“We have a lot of students who are still interested in voting and are really engaged in what’s going on in the neighboring state that they live in,” she said. “So there are actually groups of students that plan to drive home on Tuesday and go cast their ballot in person because they care that much to have their voice be heard.”
McElveen said the school develops a good relationship with the town’s moderator to help students on Election Day when they prepare to cast a ballot.
“I think our message in general is just that [students] have an opportunity and they have a right to vote, and so if they feel inclined to do that, we’re here to help support them and tell them what they need to know, so they can be prepared when they walk into the polls,” she said.
While New England College doesn’t have readily available data on student demography, figures online suggest out-of-state students account for around 40% of the student body, most of whom are from the New England area. Dillon said he knows peers from the southern U.S., California and Alaska.
Dillon said he sees the changes as a clear effort to make voting more difficult.
“I think the ruling is just another blatant attempt at just trying to screw over voters, especially the younger vote, who I think is going to go hard against the current administration,” he said.
