This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Election officials could have the latitude in some cases to accept student identification cards as a valid form of ID to vote in the general election on Nov. 3 under a ruling by a federal judge in Concord.
The ruling by Judge Joseph Laplante on Friday came in response to a lawsuit filed by The Coalition for Open Democracy, which challenged the constitutionality of a new law requiring people to have a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, to vote.
The coalition also challenged an April directive of N.H. Secretary of State David Scanlan saying that student IDs would no longer be accepted for people to register to vote or get a ballot.
Laplante declined to block the law created under House Bill 323, but did block Scanlan’s directive, saying it went too far and likely couldn’t withstand constitutional scrutiny.
The judge pointed out that the state’s Voter ID law has a “safety-valve provision” that says that if a voter can’t prove their identity by forms of ID listed in statute, an election official could consider other evidence of identity.
A student ID card could provide such evidence, so it’s not proper to broadly prohibit it, the judge said.
“The State has offered no independent justification for that broader prohibition,” Laplante said. “Under the Supreme Court’s standard for evaluating voting regulations, even a minimal burden on the right to vote must be justified by the State’s interests, and the State has identified no interest served by the April Directive beyond those already served by HB 323.”
Laplante went on to say that “the court accordingly enjoins enforcement of the April Directive to the extent it prohibits or discourages election officials from considering student IDs as evidence of voter identity ….”
Scanlan had no immediate reaction to the ruling or explanation on how student IDs would be considered going forward.
Attorneys for The Coalition for Open Democracy emailed a statement Monday saying they were pleased with the judge’s ruling and would continue to urge that he throw out the new law in its entirety.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed Republican-backed HB 323 into law on April 3 after the N.H. Legislature passed it on a partisan basis. The effective date for the law was June 2.
