Coalition for Open Democracy v. Scanlan

On August 11, 2026, Open Democracy, a nonpartisan organization committed to political equality, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire to enjoin the enforcement of HB 323 and a related state policy that prevents students from being able to use their student IDs to prove their identity when registering to vote and voting in New Hampshire elections. Free Speech For People and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo represent Open Democracy, along with local counsel Whatley Kallas LLP.

Since 2012, New Hampshire voters have been required to show ID at the polls in order to obtain a ballot. Election officials accept several types of photo ID, including—until the passage of HB 323—student ID. For the entire time that the voter ID law in New Hampshire has been in place, students or recent graduates have been able to prove their identity using IDs issued by an accredited New Hampshire high school or institution of higher learning. These IDs bore the same markers of reliability as other forms of ID, like driver’s licenses; student IDs were only accepted if they displayed the student’s photo and displayed an expiration date.

But in April 2026, the New Hampshire legislature passed a law that eliminated all student IDs as a valid form of identification when obtaining a ballot. During debates, legislators incorrectly argued that student IDs are unreliable markers of citizenship and domicile, even though student IDs have never been valid ways of proving citizenship or domicile.  Supporters also claimed that the law will prevent fraud—but it does no such thing. The New Hampshire legislature produced and heard no evidence of voter fraud involving student IDs—and virtually no evidence of voter fraud at all. They did, however, hear about the burden the law would place upon young voters. The legislature passed the law anyway, and New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte signed the bill into law on April 3, 2026.

It is clear that HB 323 is part of a long-running history of New Hampshire politicians making it harder for young people to vote. The elimination of student ID is especially concerning given that New Hampshire is already one of the most difficult states in the country in which to register to vote and has one of the lowest nation-wide registration rates for young people. New Hampshire should be encouraging eligible young voters to participate in democracy. Instead, it has chosen to unconstitutionally burden and abridge their fundamental right to vote.

The lawsuit argues that HB 323 violates the United States Constitution by:

(1) Substantially burdening voting rights, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments;

(2) Discriminating against young voters, particularly those between 18 and 21, in violation of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which bars “den[ying] or abridg[ing]” the right to vote “on account of age” for those eighteen and over;

(3) Subjecting young voters to discriminatory and unequal treatment, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The lawsuit also argues that Secretary Scanlan’s April 23 directive violates the New Hampshire Constitution by unlawfully amending the voter registration law to remove student IDs as a valid form of identification, because the power to pass laws exclusively resides with the New Hampshire legislature.