Category Archive

In a 6-3 vote yesterday, the United States Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls. Six other states — Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, and South Dakota — currently have such laws on the books.

Because students frequently maintain driver’s licenses from their city or state of origin, such laws can make it difficult for students to prove residency when voting in their campus community.

In a January press release, the executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, an advocacy group, said, “I know from hundreds of conversations, testimony at our hearing, and evidence on the ground that voter ID laws have deterred out-of-state residents from voting where they attend school nine months of the year.”

Update: An article on the ruling’s effect on students and youth.