Federal Judge Leaves New Hampshire’s Ban on Student IDs at the Polls in Place

New Hampshire students cannot use a college identification card as proof of identity to receive a ballot, a federal judge ruled, leaving in place a law Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed in April. The same order blocked a broader directive from the secretary of state that had tried to bar student IDs from voter registration as well.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, appointed by President George W. Bush, declined to enjoin House Bill 323. The statute ended the old provision that let a voter present a college ID and get a ballot. Ayotte and Republican sponsors said the change cuts the chance that a fake campus card is used at the polls. The law requires a government-issued photo ID — a New Hampshire credential, an out-of-state driver’s license or ID, or a U.S. passport — to cast a ballot.

After the bill became law, Secretary of State David Scanlan extended the ban on his own to the registration process and told local officials student IDs “cannot be used” to register or to obtain a ballot. The Coalition for Open Democracy sued, arguing Scanlan had rewritten the statute without legislative authority and that the rule burdened young voters.

Laplante agreed on that second step and not on the statute. “The State has offered no independent justification for that broader prohibition,” he wrote. “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.”

He ordered the secretary of state’s office to issue revised guidance as soon as practicable for the Nov. 3 election. The Boston Globe reported that the injunction reopens student IDs only as backup evidence under existing catch-all provisions, not as a listed form of photo identification. The statute itself still does not recognize a college card as valid ID for voting.

New Hampshire has more college students per capita than any other state, and state law has long let students living there temporarily claim residency and vote. That bloc has been large enough to matter in recent presidential counts. Election-integrity fights in the state go back to 2016, when Donald Trump alleged out-of-state voters were bused in, a claim officials disputed. A separate 2024 law signed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu required documentary proof of citizenship for first-time registrants. A federal judge blocked that statute earlier this year. The state has appealed, and the citizenship rule remains stayed. HB 323 is a different statute, and Laplante left it standing.

The practical line for Nov. 3 is narrow. A student who shows only a college ID should not be handed a ballot on the strength of that card. A student who has a government ID uses that. Where an election worker is already allowed to consider other evidence of identity, Laplante said Scanlan cannot categorically throw the college card out. The secretary of state now has to put that distinction in writing before early voting and Election Day.