States Are Dropping Student IDs from Accepted Voter Identification
New Hampshire began enforcing a ban on the use of student identification cards for voter verification in June 2026, making it the latest of several states to eliminate the credential as an acceptable form of poll ID. Governor Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 323 into law earlier in 2026, requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID and ending the student ID option that had been allowed under the state's prior law, HB 595, enacted in 2013. New Hampshire Bulletin
The New Hampshire legislature passed HB 323 as part of a broader package of election legislation that the state's House Republican caucus described as "adding security and transparency" to the state's elections. The bill requires voters to show a government-issued photo ID. New Hampshire House documents note a $20 fee associated with voter identification cards. NPR
New Hampshire is not alone. Indiana's Senate Bill 10, effective July 1, 2025, states that a document issued by an educational institution may not be used as proof of identification for voting. On April 14, 2026, a U.S. district court judge granted plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction — a court order that temporarily blocks enforcement of a law while the case proceeds — halting the Indiana ban. That injunction was short-lived: on April 20, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit stayed the lower court's order, putting the ban back into effect. Indiana Capital Chronicle
Florida has moved in the same direction. In April 2026, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on accepting student IDs for voter check-in at the polls. That measure is set to take effect in 2027. NPR
At the federal level, the Save America Act, a Republican plan to overhaul voting in federal elections backed by President Trump, would prohibit in-person voters from using student IDs to verify their identity. The proposal has not been enacted. NPR
Litigation challenging the New Hampshire ban is underway. The Coalition for Open Democracy filed a federal lawsuit arguing that HB 323 is unconstitutional because it burdens eligible students' right to vote and discriminates against younger voters on the basis of age. Separately, voting rights groups including Free Speech for People filed a federal lawsuit on August 12, 2026, challenging the ban as a voter suppression law targeting young voters. Free Speech for People
The Indiana litigation has followed a more convoluted procedural path. A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Indiana's student ID ban in October 2025, a procedural win for the plaintiffs. The district court then issued a preliminary injunction on April 14, 2026, only for the Seventh Circuit to stay that injunction six days later. The ban remains in effect while the case proceeds. Democracy Docket
A New Hampshire Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee hearing report argued that restricting student IDs is unnecessary because voters will need an alternative form of identification anyway. That argument did not carry the day in the legislature, which passed HB 323 and sent it to Ayotte's desk. NPR
The broader context here is a state-by-state fracturing of voter ID rules along partisan lines. States under unified Republican control have moved to narrow the list of accepted IDs to government-issued credentials, while litigation from voting rights organizations has followed each enactment. The Seventh Circuit's stay of the Indiana injunction signals that federal appellate courts may be inclined to let these laws operate during litigation, a posture that could shape the trajectory of the New Hampshire challenges as well. The Save America Act, if advanced in Congress, would nationalize the question of which IDs suffice, though it faces the ordinary legislative hurdles of a federal election overhaul.
For state election administrators, the immediate practical question is voter education: New Hampshire voters who previously relied on student IDs must now obtain a qualifying government-issued credential, and the documented $20 fee for voter identification cards may factor into the constitutional arguments the courts will weigh. The outcomes in the Indiana and New Hampshire federal cases will likely establish the legal framework for evaluating whether excluding student IDs from the list of accepted poll credentials imposes an unconstitutional burden on a specific group of eligible voters.
