In Victory for Election Integrity, Supreme Court Upholds New Hampshire Student-ID Ban at the Polls
No state should treat campus cards as valid voter ID.
The Supreme Court stopped a federal judge from rewriting New Hampshire’s voting rules days before voters head to the polls. On October 22, the justices allowed the state to enforce its ban on student identification cards in the November 3 midterm elections. The order overrules a district court injunction that had partially blocked the state’s legislation.
Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) told the justices that months of training for local officials and public outreach would be undone less than three weeks before Election Day. Poll workers cannot be expected to learn one set of rules in the spring and a different set in October. The justices agreed and cited the 2006 Purcell principle, which holds that federal courts should not change election procedures on the eve of voting. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) signed House Bill 323 earlier this year, which removed student IDs from the list of documents accepted as photo identification to obtain a ballot. New Hampshire is one of 24 states that require a photo ID to vote and now is one of 11 states that do not accept student IDs for this purpose.
After the law passed, Scanlan directed election officials not to consider student IDs even under the "safety-valve" provision, which lets voters offer other evidence of identity if they lack an accepted form of photo ID. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante let the law stand but blocked Scanlan's directive. The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to pause Laplante's order.
A Student ID Proves Enrollment, Not Residency—Much Less Citizenship
The risk of permitting students to use their student IDs to register and vote is real. In Michigan, a Chinese national, then a University of Michigan student, used his student ID to register and cast an early ballot in the 2024 presidential election. In doing so, he perjured himself, attesting that he was a U.S. citizen. Once he voted, however, his ballot had to be counted, diluting the vote of a legally registered American citizen.
Prosecutors charged him, and a judge ordered him to surrender his passport and stay in Michigan. Although he turned in his passport, he somehow obtained a second passport in his name with a different serial number and left for Shanghai in January 2025. The United States has no extradition treaty with China, so he remains beyond the reach of American courts.
This case shows how a student ID can easily open the door to illegal participation by a noncitizen. It also shows how easy it is for someone from a hostile country to evade prosecution. Although Chinese enrollment at U.S. universities has fallen, there are still over 250,000 Chinese students in the United States.
Like Michigan, New Hampshire allows same-day voter registration. Allowing student IDs provides a gaping loophole for voter fraud.
"Student IDs have no address verification," Rep. Ross Berry (R), one of House Bill 323's cosponsors, wrote in April after the bill's passage. "No citizenship check. No security features. They were the weakest link in our election integrity framework, and now that loophole is closed."
The leftist Coalition for Open Democracy (COD), the group suing the state, accused the Supreme Court of upholding "an unconstitutional policy that will deprive young voters of their right to vote." But students are as capable as any other adult of obtaining a government-issued photo ID, whether it be a driver's license, passport, or special voter ID card. The few extra steps this requires do not negate the security that banning student IDs brings to elections.
The Supreme Court has preserved the right of New Hampshire's officials to craft their state's election law as they see fit and correctly prevented lower courts from scrambling their directives close to an election. As policy, removing student IDs as an acceptable form of voter ID is smart and prevents foreign students from illegally participating in American democracy. The Michigan case offers a cautionary tale. Every state should learn from it and require government-issued forms of voter ID.
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