As outlined by the voting rights group Democracy Docket, a legal challenge remains ongoing in Idaho over restrictions imposed there under the state’s GOP-controlled government on the usage of student IDs in both registering to vote and later casting a ballot. A newly filed and amended complaint outlining the underlying case establishes the challenges to the limits on using those IDs for voter registration.
Although there are, in fact, provisions in Idaho to help those perhaps struggling to obtain an ID, these allowances don’t cover everybody, like those who might let their identification expire but wouldn’t reach a six-month period required for help before Election Day or young voters who would turn 18 years of age shortly before the election takes place so wouldn’t have even the logistically required turnaround time needed for obtaining an ID. For the older voters, although other help might be available, no longer needing an ID card of whatever variety they had could create a special requirement just for voting that, depending on the timing of their previous identification’s expiration, they might be unable to meet.
Newly registering voters are also unfairly penalized under the regulatory scheme that’s been established, since affidavit ballots are available to already registered voters who may lack the necessary identifications on Election Day, but there’s no secondary option for those trying to register and struggling to assemble the needed documentation. Also among those who could potentially be disenfranchised are new residents of the state who still possess valid state ID cards from some other jurisdiction but haven’t had the chance to obtain a card in Idaho.
The grounds for the unfolding challenge include the Constitutional argument of a violation of the 26th Amendment because of what amounts to discrimination in the voting process on account of age if prospective voters with student IDs — and not the other forms of required identification — are disproportionately affected. “In total, H.B. 340 and H.B. 124 add strict ID requirements to the full voting process, from registering to vote to casting ballots, which will have an outsized impact on young voters in violation of the 26th Amendment,” Democracy Docket said. Plaintiffs are pursuing the undoing of the laws and a reestablishment of an allowance for student IDs as an acceptable form of identification at relevant junctures of the electoral process. The entire case remains in its early stages, as the first complaint — before the additions challenging the new ID rules around voter registration — evidently came just last month.
