Supreme Court says New Hampshire student IDs can’t be used to vote in November

WASHINGTON — In a win for Republicans, the Supreme Court said Thursday that student IDs cannot be used in New Hampshire for the midterm elections.

The justices granted an emergency request filed by the state, which had the backing of the Republican National Committee.

The ballot in New Hampshire includes a closely watched Senate race that could play a key role in deciding control of the chamber. Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu is pitted against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

The brief court order said a federal judge should not have ordered a change in voting rules so close to the Nov. 3 election, citing existing precedent on that point.

“Here, the District Court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle,” the unsigned order said.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter.

“I would not disturb a clearly justifiable federal court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a State’s electoral processes,” she wrote.

While a state law restricting use of student IDs as a primary form of identification was already on the books, the decision means potential voters also cannot use them as backups when they seek to establish their identities.

The dispute arises from a state law enacted in April that removed student IDs from the list of forms of identification that election officials would accept when someone requests a ballot.

The measure was challenged by a nonprofit voting rights group called Coalition for Open Democracy, which argued that it unlawfully burdened the right to vote and discriminated against young voters.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante declined to block the law, but on Oct. 2 he weighed in again, putting guidance from New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, on hold.

Scanlan’s guidance said student IDs could not be used for any purpose when people seek ballots, which Laplante said went further than the law itself, which only barred them as a primary source of ID.

A separate provision of state law allows people to establish their identities using other, unofficial forms of ID. It says people can use “any other evidence that reasonably establishes that it is more likely than not that the person is who they claim to be.”

Under Laplante’s ruling, election officials could still take a student ID into account in trying to determine whether someone is a valid voter.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put Laplante’s ruling on hold, prompting the state to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.