New Hampshire sued over voter ID restrictions for students

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(The Center Square) — New Hampshire is being sued in federal court over a new law that prohibits the use of student IDs to vote in federal, state and local elections.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Coalition for Open Democracy, alleges that the requirement for students to show government-issued photo identification to register to vote and cast ballots "unconstitutionally burdens the right to vote, discriminates against young voters on account of their age, and unlawfully rewrites New Hampshire’s election statutes." 

A bill signed into law by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in April eliminates a provision of state election law allowing voters to show a college identification card to receive a ballot. Instead, students are now required to present an ID issued by the federal government or an out-of-state driver’s license, ID card or U.S. passport. 

Ayotte and other Republican proponents hailed the law, saying it reduces the likelihood of voter fraud from people using fake college identification. 

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan unilaterally extended that requirement to the state's voter registration process, but the federal lawsuit claims that violated the state Constitution’s separation-of-powers protections because he didn't have authority from the state Legislature. 

"As a result, young voters in New Hampshire must now navigate a burdensome bureaucracy to exercise their fundamental right to vote," plaintiffs wrote in the 56-page complaint.

State law allows students who are temporarily living in the Granite State to claim residence and vote. New Hampshire has more college students per capita than any other state.

Students are a sizable chunk of the electorate that helped tip the state's vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and Kamala Harris in 2024.

But election integrity has been an issue in New Hampshire since the 2016 presidential election, when then-Republican candidate Donald Trump falsely claimed that busloads of Massachusetts Democrats were brought into the state to vote against him. Trump reiterated the allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 elections, which he ultimately lost.

A 2022 report by the state's Special Committee on Voter Confidence concluded that New Hampshire's election system "works as is intended" and "deserves the support and confidence" of the state's voters. 

Instances of voter fraud are "rare and isolated," and promptly investigated by state and local election officials, according to the report. It discredited the claims about busloads of voters coming to the state. 

A 2024 law signed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu, requires identification to cast a ballot, without exceptions, and documented proof of U.S. citizenship for first-time New Hampshire voters to register to vote. 

Voting access groups challenged that law and a federal judge issued a ruling in May striking down the law as unconstitutional. The state has appealed, but the law currently remains blocked.