Federal judge upholds New Hampshire student voter ID restrictions

(The Center Square) — New Hampshire students will no longer be able to use a student ID card as proof of identity when they show up to the polls to vote after a federal judge upheld the state's new voter ID restrictions.

The ruling, issued by U.S. District Court judge Joseph Laplante, upheld a New Hampshire law requiring students to have a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, to vote.

But Laplante's decision also sided with good government groups who sued over New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan's unilateral extension of that requirement to the voter registration process, ruling that the state's top election official overstepped his authority. 

"The State has offered no independent justification for that broader prohibition," Laplante wrote in the ruling. "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." 

A bill signed into law by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in April eliminated a provision of state election law that allowed voters to present a college identification card to receive a ballot. Ayotte and other Republican proponents hailed the law, saying it reduces the likelihood of voter fraud from people using fake college identification. 

The changes, long sought by New Hampshire Republicans, require students to show an ID issued by the federal government or an out-of-state driver’s license, ID card or U.S. passport in order to cast a ballot. 

After Ayotte signed the measure into law, Scanlan unilaterally extended that requirement to the state's voter registration process. That prompted a group called the Coalition for Open Democracy to file a federal lawsuit, alleging that it violated the state Constitution’s separation-of-powers protections because he lacked authority from the state Legislature. 

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In the legal challenge, lawyers for the group alleged 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."

For years, state law has allowed students temporarily living in the Granite State to claim residency and vote. New Hampshire has more college students per capita than any other state.

Students are also 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 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 earlier this year striking down the law as unconstitutional. The state has appealed, but the law currently remains blocked.