More than three dozen GOP state voting laws take effect as early voting begins

Voters in several Republican-controlled states are encountering new election rules for the first time as early voting gets underway. In New Hampshire, student IDs are no longer accepted at the polls. Utah voters returning mail ballots must supply additional information on the envelope, and some Mississippi voters may need birth certificates or passports to confirm their identities.

The state-level changes mirror proposals from President Donald Trump that stalled in Washington. Trump pressed Congress to pass a proof-of-citizenship law, signed an executive order seeking a national voter ID requirement and tried to limit mail voting through U.S. Postal Service changes, none of which succeeded in time to affect this year's midterms.

The new requirements have drawn legal challenges. In South Dakota, the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking to halt a law that requires first-time registrants to present driver's licenses, Tribal IDs or non-driver state IDs in person at locations that accept registration. Kathryn Johnson, president of the League of Women Voters of South Dakota, said the in-person requirement is burdensome in a remote state where voters may have to take time off work. In Ohio, the ACLU has sued over a law imposing a proof-of-citizenship requirement at Bureau of Motor Vehicles locations and ending the state's four-day grace period for mail ballots, which now must arrive by Election Day.

Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio, said the databases used to check citizenship against voter registration lists can be outdated, leaving large numbers of eligible voters vulnerable to disenfranchisement. Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, a primary sponsor of the bill, defended it, saying hundreds of noncitizens have been removed from Ohio's voter rolls over two years and that every vote cast by a noncitizen disenfranchises a lawful voter. Voting rights groups say their biggest concern is an ongoing purge of the state's rolls.

New Hampshire state Rep. Donald McFarlane said he sponsored the bill eliminating student IDs because colleges do not apply the same controls as government agencies when issuing cards, adding that the measure had bipartisan support and that students can still obtain free state IDs. Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said states are advancing restrictions that make it harder for eligible voters to cast a ballot.

The Brennan Center for Justice has identified nearly 40 laws in 21 states taking effect this election season that will make it harder for eligible voters to register, stay on the rolls or cast ballots. The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced charges in roughly 90 cases of election misconduct, including 50 against people alleged to have voted as noncitizens, a rare problem given that the country had 227 million registered voters for the 2024 presidential election. The Voting Rights Lab, which tracks state legislation, said several versions of Trump's proposals have been passed by allies in the states, covering mail balloting, voter ID and the search for noncitizens on voter rolls.