Use of student IDs at polling places banned under bill approved by House committee

Student identification could no longer be used to prove someone’s identity at polling places under a bill approved along party lines by a House committee.

Critics said the bill is a Republican attempt to suppress the youth vote.

IDs from Indiana’s public colleges and universities cannot be used to register to vote. But for decades, they have been one of the few allowable forms of voter ID at polling places.

SB 10, authored by Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen) would end that policy, banning the use of student IDs to vote.

“I don’t believe we’re disenfranchising them,” Doriot said. “We’re requiring them to do the very same thing that other residents in the state of Indiana do.”

Rep. Kendall Culp (R-Rensselaer) is the House sponsor of the bill.

“My concern — and, talking to county clerks, their concern is — we have no way of verifying if a student votes in two different states,” Culp said.

But the bill may not solve that concern because student IDs cannot be used to register — only to prove someone’s identity at a polling place.

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Delaney Barber Kwon from Indiana Conservation Voters said there is no problem to be solved by the bill.

“Considering Indiana’s bottom-of-the-barrel voter turnout, it’s difficult to understand why a ban on student ID is necessary,” Kwon said. “There’s been evidence that they are being used to commit voter fraud.”

Indiana University student Anushka Pandey said the youth vote is becoming one of the largest voting blocs in the country.

“This bill shuts us out of a political system that is not only guaranteed to us by the [U.S.] Constitution, but that we will inherit sooner, rather than later,” Pandey said. “If you think that suppressing us will help you, you are wrong.”

The bill heads to the House floor.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.