College-issued student IDs wouldn’t be valid for voting under bill headed to KY Senate

College-issued student ID cards no longer would be accepted as a valid form of photo ID for Kentucky voters under a bill headed to the state Senate.

The Senate State and Local Government Committee Wednesday approved Senate Bill 80, which drops student IDs from the list of acceptable proofs of identification at the polls, such as a driver’s license, a passport or a military ID.

Student IDs were included in Kentucky’s voter ID law in 2020 to accommodate young adults. Fewer than 80% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 21 are licensed drivers, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration.

By comparison, more than 90% of Americans age 30 to 79 have a driver’s license.

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However, use of student IDs was “very minimal” during voter check-in for the 2023 general election in Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University, according to the Fayette County Clerk’s Office. Seventy-one of 98,071 voter check-ins involved a student ID, the clerk’s office said.

The Senate bill raised alarms with Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, whose office helps to oversee statewide elections.

“Our ‘Photo ID to Vote’ law was carefully drafted to ensure success against court challenges, and Secretary Adams was successful in three such challenges. We are concerned that this bill could get the photo ID law struck down,” said Michon Lindstrom, spokeswoman for the secretary of state.

“Also, as a Republican, Secretary Adams believes his party should be careful not to gratuitously alienate young voters like college students by taking away their ability to use college photo IDs in the absence of any evidence they have been used fraudulently,” Lindstrom added.

The Senate bill will now advance to the full Senate. It would need to pass the Senate before moving to the Kentucky House.

Its sponsor, state Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, has been criticized, including by some members of her own political party, for publicizing election conspiracy theories.

Southworth told her colleagues Wednesday that the other acceptable forms of photo ID are government-issued and require supporting documentation, “so we’re gonna accept it on its face.”

“A student ID is absolutely not really appropriate for a primary source of ID,” she said. “There are ways to try to get your identity confirmed, but it certainly shouldn’t be the first thing we go to.”

Apart from student IDs, the bill also would drop credit and debit cards from a secondary list of supporting forms of identification. Southworth said that credit and debit cards aren’t issued by the government and don’t carry a photo of the voter, making them a poor choice for the list.

State Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, voted against the bill, saying she was unaware of any problems caused by voters using student IDs or any requests for the measure from local or state elections officials.

“I am concerned this is a solution in search of a problem,” Armstrong said.

“I haven’t heard any evidence that these forms of ID are more likely to be subject to fraud. I worry that by taking away a source of identification most often used by some of our more vulnerable residents who don’t normally have access to these government-issued IDs that require folks to gather documents — they can be expensive both in terms of time and money — that we’re actually making it more difficult for folks to vote,” Armstrong said.

In response, Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said county clerks’ offices offer a free photo identification card, similar to a driver’s license, to Kentuckians who need an official photo ID but who can’t drive or don’t want to.