Student IDs no longer valid for voting under new NH law

College students in New Hampshire will no longer be able to use their student identification cards to vote, according to a new law signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

Championed by State House Republicans, House Bill 323 allows residents to vote only with a government-issued ID, building on a growing number of voting restrictions enacted over the past few years.

College students with a U.S. passport or state-issued driver’s license will still be able to vote, but out-of-state students who consider the state their primary residence but lack official forms of ID won’t be able to cast ballots.

Some supporters celebrated that the law could stop out-of-state college students, a demographic that tends to lean left politically, from influencing state elections.

Voting rights advocates decried the change, saying students who attend college here should have a say in who governs them.

“Students have a stake in New Hampshire’s future: its housing costs, its environment, its economy,” Lisa Kovack, director for the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, said in a statement. “Students should be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote without additional obstacles.”

The state does not track the number of people who use student IDs when registering to vote, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

At least seven other states do not allow college IDs for voting, including South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. In the other 43 states, college students who hail from New Hampshire can choose to vote where they go to school or send an absentee ballot back to the Granite State.

Likewise, students going to school in New Hampshire who are registered to vote in other states can request an absentee ballot to participate in those elections.

Republicans argue that the measure does not infringe on the right to vote and is needed to make the state’s elections more secure.

“You need a government-issued ID to collect social security, to get on welfare, to do everything … You need an ID to get on a plane,” Weare Republican Rep. Ross Berry, chair of the House Election Law Committee, said on the House floor earlier this year. “It’s a part of life. It’s 2026 now. People have IDs.”

The new law goes into effect on June 2, ahead of the state primary in September.

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