Labrador Letter: Idaho’s Laws for Election Security

Dear Friends,

Last week my office achieved an important victory in the defense of Idaho’s laws for election security. In a unanimous 5-0 decision in Babe Vote et. al. v. McGrane, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld Idaho’s law that said a student identification card was not an acceptable form of ID when it comes to voter registration. Student IDs are not standardized and there are almost zero criteria or security for their issuance, beyond simply being a student.

When the Idaho Legislature passed HB124 in 2023, the League of Women Voters and Babe Vote immediately filed suit. They were represented by attorneys with deep left-wing ties who claimed that students were discriminated against, and young people were disenfranchised from their voting rights. 

This was pure nonsense. In fact, part of the law being challenged also established a free government-issued ID that meets the standards and security for identification necessary to register to vote. The only thing being discriminated against was an insecure form of identification, not the voter. 

My office was very pleased to take on this challenge in defense of Idaho’s commonsense law and deliver wins at both the state district court level and at the Idaho Supreme Court. However, this battle isn’t over. A similar suit from the same plaintiffs and represented by the same group of leftist lawyers was filed in federal court challenging Idaho’s election security laws. We’ll be there to fight that one too. 

Voting and election security have received a tremendous amount of scrutiny in recent years. If we want citizens to have confidence in the outcomes of elections, people need to have confidence in the process. Valid, secure, and standardized identification for registering to vote is a step in the right direction. A student ID may be good for checking out a book at the campus library or getting a discount on a pizza – but it doesn’t pass muster for Idaho elections.