These States Make It Harder for College Students to Vote

• North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas don't allow student IDs to be used as voter identification under any circumstances.
• Georgia is one of the states that only allows public college and university IDs.
• Idaho will enforce a law next year prohibiting student IDs from polls.
• The North Carolina State Board of Elections is requesting public and private colleges to submit their IDs to have them approved for 2023 voting.

College students looking to participate in elections have a more difficult time voting in several states. Long-term laws and new bills target the use of student IDs at the polls. And a Texas bill and a GOP lawyer seek to remove polls from all higher education institutions.

Thirty-six states require or request some form of identification to cast a ballot. The identification can include a signed affidavit or a variety of documents including signatures, official documents like bank statements, or photo identification like passports and driver's licenses.

Within these voter ID states, some prohibit student IDs or require that students present additional identification alongside them.

North Carolina implemented a voter ID requirement this spring and included college student photo IDs. The Board of Elections encouraged all private and public education institutions on May 30 to submit their student IDs for approval in the 2023 elections.

"Getting their IDs approved will help ensure their students and employees are best equipped to participate in our state's elections," said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. "The State Board is ready to assist these institutions and governmental entities as they work through this approval process."

According to Voting Rights Lab, an organization that tracks voting issues, five states prohibit student IDs as acceptable forms of identification to vote:

• North Dakota
• Ohio
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas

Idaho will soon join the list.

Idaho enacted House Bill 124 on March 15, which removed student IDs issued by high schools and higher education institutions as valid forms of identification. The bill will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

In Georgia, Arizona, Indiana, and Wyoming, students can use an ID issued only by a state public college or university if it has a photo.

In Ohio, a new law enacted on Jan. 6 further restricted alternate voter ID by prohibiting utility bills, bank statements, government checks, paychecks, or other government documents with a name and address.

According to Bloomberg, Rob Nichols, a spokesperson for Ohio's secretary of state, said college students could get a free state ID card from the Department of Motor Vehicles to vote in person or by mail, which does not require a photo ID.

Texas' Temporary Polling Law Restricts On-Campus Polling

Texas introduced a law in 2019 for temporary on-campus polls.

It requires that all early voting at temporary branch polling places (located in a movable structure) be open during all days of early voting for at least eight hours a day, hindering their flexibility to operate.

According to The Texas Tribune, Republican state Rep. Greg Bonnen argued, at the time, that the flexibility of temporary polls resulted in "the selective harvesting of targeted voters."

"The flexibility of polling locations was designed to accommodate more voters near their homes or workplaces, but some subdivisions of the state have abused this flexibility and targeted desirable voting populations at the exclusion of others," Bonnen told the House Elections Committee during legislation considerations in 2019, according to The Texas Tribune.

Potential Restrictions to Make Voting More Difficult on Campus

Four years after Texas' temporary polling limitations, a bill filed Feb. 16 by Republican state Rep. Carrie Isaac aims to prohibit all polling places at higher education institutions. The bill would go into effect Sept. 1.

"The commissioners court of a county may not designate as a polling place a location on the campus of an institution of higher education located within the county," the bill states.

The bill is still in its early stages and was only read for the first time on March 9.

GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell presented a plan to the Republican National Committee on April 20 on limiting voting on college campuses, according to a presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

"What are these college campus locations?" Mitchell asked, according to audio obtained by the Post. "What is this young people effort that they do? They basically put the polling place next to the student dorm so they just have to roll out of bed, vote, and go back to bed."

The Post reported that the GOP did not formally endorse Mitchell's plan.

Which States Allow You to Use Your Student ID to Vote?

Last Updated: April 18, 2023 at 2:48 P.M. EST

Credit: Voting Rights Lab