The U.S. Supreme Court is reinstating a ban on the use of school-issued photo identification for voting in New Hampshire, overturning a lower court’s ruling from earlier this month.
In an order released late Thursday — less than two weeks from Election Day — the court said the earlier decision by Judge Joseph Laplante, which partially reinstated the use of school IDs, was handed down too close to the election, in violation of a precedent that rules should not change on the “eve of an election.”
The ruling is a victory for the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office, which argued the change could sow confusion at local polling locations.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is an important victory for our efforts to defend those laws and prevent last-minute court orders from creating uncertainty for voters and election officials,” said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella.
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Earlier this year, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a Republican-authored law into effect that removed high school and college IDs from the approved list of identification for registering to vote. David Scanlan, the Secretary of State, later issued guidance instructing local officials to also not consider school IDs as part of the state’s “catch all” process that allows election officials to consider other evidence that a would-be voter may bring to the polls.
The Coalition for Open Democracy, a voting rights group, filed a lawsuit challenging the law on the grounds that it unfairly targeted younger voters. Opponents of the law also said there was no evidence that school-issued IDs were more prone to fraud than government-issued IDs.
On Oct. 2, LaPlante issued a mixed ruling in the case. He said that while the original law could remain in place, the state had overstepped by prohibiting any consideration of school identification as part of the voter registration process.
The state immediately filed an appeal to the First Circuit Court, which rejected the request. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned opinion blocking Laplante’s order. The court cited a longstanding series of decisions that prohibit last minute changes to election laws. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a lone dissent.
While the court’s ruling blocks the use of school IDs in New Hampshire’s November general election, local election officials say it is rare that students arrive to register or request a ballot with only a student identification, so the overall impact may be minor.
