New Lawsuit Blasts Indiana for Banning Student IDs at the Polls

Indiana’s bid to make it harder for college students to vote is being challenged in court.

Last month, Gov. Mike Braun (R) signed into law Senate Bill 10 (SB 10), which bans the use of university-issued IDs as valid voter identification at the polls. A new lawsuit calls this a “surgical attack” on student voting access as Indiana continues to allow other, less secure forms of voter ID. 

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which include Women4Change Indiana, Count Us In and one student voter, claim the new law is targeted and discriminatory. 

“There is no justification for SB 10’s sui generis treatment of student IDs, which is, in reality, a surgical attack on young voters,” the complaint alleges. “Legislators have attempted to justify the sudden change as a way to ensure that only U.S. citizens and Indiana residents can vote in Indiana elections. But there is no evidence that these are actual problems in Indiana, and even if they were, SB 10 does not require people to use IDs that prove citizenship or residency.”

“As one legislator described,” the complaint adds, “the Student ID Ban is ‘about controlling who gets to vote, not protecting elections.’”

The lawsuit claims the ban violates the 26th Amendment, which enfranchised 18-20 year-olds, as well as the 1st and 14th Amendments.

A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales (R), a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Monroe County’s election supervisor, Kylie Farris, estimated to Bolts that two-thirds of the people who voted at the only on-campus polling place at Indiana University Bloomington used student IDs to vote in 2024. Statewide, thousands more students have relied on their student IDs to vote for decades.

Nearly 40% of all 18 and 19-year-olds do not have a driver’s license, the most commonly accepted form of voter ID, according to one analysis. 

Indiana’s move follows a growing national pattern to suppress the youth vote. At least 19 GOP-led states, including Indiana, have supported restrictions that disproportionately affect student voters.

“College students are vital members of the communities they live in, and they deserve to have a say in the elections that affect their futures,” Indiana state Rep. Sue Errington (D) said in a statement opposing SB 10 before it passed. “Denying them the ability to vote with the IDs they use every day would be a step backward for our democracy.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court to block enforcement of the ban before the 2026 election cycle. 

Legal experts and voting rights groups are watching closely, as the outcome of the case could change the conversation on youth access to the ballot box nationwide.