New Hampshire Senate removes student IDs for voting
29 May, 2013
category: Education
The New Hampshire Senate passed new legislation that alters the current state voter identification law by removing any reference to student ID cards used as an acceptable form of identification at a polling place, according to Union Leader.
The current law enables seven different forms of identification acceptable at a polling place, including a valid student ID card. The Senate plan, passed on a 13-10 vote, cuts that list to four items.
Changes made by the Senate on each bill will require that they return to the House of Representatives, which will either agree with the Senate, non-concur and set up a conference committee, or non-concur without a conference committee, killing the bills and keeping the current laws in place.
Although student IDs are removed from the bill as a defined means of being allowed to vote, it’s still leaves it up to the discretion of local election officials to determine if such an ID is legitimate. If a voter is challenged, he or she must then fill out a challenged voter affidavit as if no identification was presented.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCLS), there are twelve states in the U.S. that reference student identification cards in its requirements for voter idenficiation including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia and Washington.
Read more here.
