Supreme Court Lets New Hampshire Bar Student IDs at the Polls. Clear Rules Are Fair, but the State Owes Students Help.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

New Hampshire students will not be able to use their school identification cards to vote on Nov. 3. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, Oct. 22, paused a federal judge's order that had required the state to let towns consider student IDs, New Hampshire Bulletin reported. The ruling restores enforcement of a 2026 state law that removed school ID cards from the list of documents accepted to prove identity at the polls.

The unsigned order was brief. "This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election," the justices wrote, adding that the district court "did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle," according to the order. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

How the case got here

The law, House Bill 323, was passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, InDepthNH reported. Supporters argued it would close off the potential for fraud using false or out-of-date student cards. Opponents said it would leave some young voters without passports or driver's licenses without an easy way to vote, according to New Hampshire Bulletin.

The group Open Democracy sued, arguing the ban violated the 26th Amendment and unlawfully burdened the right to vote. On Oct. 2, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante issued a preliminary injunction. He wrote that he did not believe the plaintiffs would succeed on the merits against the law itself. But he ruled that the secretary of state's April guidance to local election officials had caused confusion, and he required the office to revise it and allow towns to use student IDs, New Hampshire Bulletin reported. The First Circuit Court of Appeals left that order in place before the state went to the Supreme Court on Oct. 15.

At the center of the fight is a safety-valve provision that lets election officials consider other evidence of a voter's identity. Voting rights groups said student IDs could still count as that secondary evidence. The state said they could not, Courthouse News Service reported.

What each side says

Secretary of State David Scanlan told the justices there was "substantial risk that voters could show up at the polls with only their student IDs in hand," according to Courthouse News. Attorney General John Formella called the ruling "an important victory for our efforts to defend those laws and prevent last-minute court orders from creating uncertainty for voters and election officials."

Bryan Sells, the attorney for the Coalition for Open Democracy, said the decision blocked "an injunction that has now been in place for almost three weeks, injecting confusion into the election," Courthouse News reported.

In dissent, Jackson wrote that the lower court's order "left the state election rule untouched" and that its injunction "was reasonably designed to address alleged misinformation, not to change the law," according to her opinion.

What students need now

The secretary of state's office says rules for the general election revert to those in effect for the Sept. 8 primary. It has published a "Student Guide to Voting in NH" and a "Student Guide to Registering to Vote," InDepthNH reported. Anyone registering must prove identity, age, citizenship and domicile. Citizenship alone may be shown by a signed affidavit. The office says it will run radio and television announcements that student ID cards cannot be used to prove identity.

Liz Tentarelli, president of the League of Women Voters New Hampshire, warned that "The NH DMV is not equipped to issue the non–driver IDs for voting purposes only in a timely manner," InDepthNH reported.

Opinion: Clear rules, and help for the students who must follow them

The Supreme Court got this one right. Its own precedent tells federal judges not to rewrite election rules in the final weeks, and this injunction came in October. The district judge himself doubted the challengers would win against the law. When a court thinks a law is probably valid, it should not freeze it a month before Election Day over how a state office worded its guidance.

Asking every voter to show a government-issued ID is not voter suppression. Americans show ID to board a plane, buy cold medicine and pick up a package. A school card printed by any one of many schools is harder for a poll worker to check, and New Hampshire's legislature had every right to decide it was not good enough.

Fairness cuts both ways, though. Justice Jackson's dissent makes a real point: a state official should describe the law accurately. And the League's warning about the DMV deserves an answer, not a shrug. If the state requires an ID, it should make that ID easy and free to get for any eligible citizen who asks. "A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight." A just weight here means one rule, plainly stated, applied to everyone, with real help for those trying to meet it.

Courts are being asked to settle election fights everywhere this fall, including the one in DOJ Sues to Block Alaska Senate Certification if Sullivan Loses. The better path is settled rules set well ahead of time by the people's representatives. If you know a college student in New Hampshire, make sure he has a driver's license or other accepted ID in hand before Nov. 3.