Supreme Court lets New Hampshire bar student IDs as voter backup

The Supreme Court has allowed New Hampshire to enforce its restriction on student identification cards in the November 3, 2026, midterm election, including limits on using the cards as backup evidence when voters cannot establish their identity with other documents. The justices granted the state’s emergency request to pause a federal judge’s order requiring election officials to consider student IDs under a state-law safety-valve provision. The stay remains in effect while the appeal proceeds in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The Supreme Court’s brief order did not disclose how the justices voted. New Hampshire law already bars student IDs as a stand-alone form of voter identification. The dispute concerned broader guidance from Secretary of State David Scanlan, which directed officials not to consider the cards for any purpose. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante left the law in place but blocked that broader guidance, ruling that officials could weigh student IDs alongside other evidence when a voter lacked an accepted document. The Supreme Court cited its precedent that federal courts should ordinarily avoid changing election rules close to an election....