by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports
The Idaho Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that state lawmakers did not violate the state or federal constitution when they eliminated use of student ID cards as valid identification for voting.
BABE VOTE and the League of Women Voters challenged two laws that passed last year, HB 124 and HB 340, that aligned the forms of identification that Idahoans can use for voter registration and for proving their identity at the polls. The plaintiffs argued that the changes violated equal protection principles by placing a heightened burden on students who want to exercise their right to vote.
The law now allows voters to verify their identity with a driver’s license or state identification card, passport or federal identification card, tribal identification card, or concealed weapons license.
A district judge found the changes constitutional in October because not all young people are students and not all students are young people, and because students are not a protected class.
The two organizations appealed that decision, arguing the two bills should be subject to a more intense level of legal review because they possibly infringe on fundamental constitutional rights.
“A state election law provision that imposes reasonable, nondiscriminatory restrictions upon the rights of voters will be upheld because the state’s important regulatory interests are generally sufficient to justify the restrictions,” Justice Robyn Brody wrote in the unanimous opinion.
The Idaho Constitution protects voting as a fundamental right. However, it also lets the Legislature “prescribe qualifications, limitations, and conditions for the right of suffrage,” and subjects that right to registration as provided by law.
Because the constitution allows the Legislature to place conditions on the right of suffrage, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled, the district court was correct to apply rational basis review rather than strict scrutiny review and the laws are rationally related to the state’s goal of election integrity.
“Determining the appropriate forms of personal identification for registration and voting, while prohibiting some forms deemed unreliable, is rationally related to this interest,” Brody wrote.
Logan Finney | Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.