Students attending public universities in Indiana will be able to use their student identification cards during the state’s May 5 primary election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Federal judge Richard Young granted a preliminary injunction requested by Count US IN, Women4Change Indiana and Indiana University junior Josh Montagne.
The plaintiffs first filed a lawsuit against Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and other statewide election officials in May 2025. They argued Senate Enrolled Act 10, signed into law last April, targets young voters.
SEA 10, now known as Public Law 70, prohibits the use of university-issued student identification cards as a valid form of identification when voting.
Morales argued the ban would preserve election security, as it would require a uniform ID to verify identities at the polls.
“Secretary Morales wants the youth to vote, but they must get an Indiana Drivers License like every other Hoosier and claim Indiana residency,” the secretary’s office wrote in a May 2025 press release.
Morales’ office did not immediately respond to request for comment. Montagne declined to comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit.
In anticipation of Indiana’s May 5 primary election, the plaintiffs filed a February preliminary injunction request, asking for an update. The Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a denial request in response in March.
The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his ruling, Young estimated that 40,000 Indiana student voters would be impacted by the ban.
Advocates of the bill argued in its March denial request that students should obtain free Indiana identification cards, like a driver’s license or a state-issued ID. Young disagreed with the bill’s supporters, mentioning the difficulty of obtaining Indiana identification cards for students from out of state.
“Obtaining the free ID for voting therefore requires an applicant to surrender their driving privileges everywhere — a burden that weighs heaviest on out-of-state students wanting to vote in Indiana,” he wrote.
Young’s ruling also addressed that the bill only targeted college-issued ID cards, not any others.
“SB 10 marked the first time that Indiana singled out a previously acceptable form of ID and barred its use at the polls,” Young wrote. “Students are the only group that are told that their widely held, government-issued ID cannot be used to vote.”
The law is now temporarily blocked because of Young’s ruling, allowing students to use their student IDs during the primary election.
Isaac Chapman-Whitehead, junior and president of IU’s chapter of College Democrats, told the Indiana Daily Student the decision was “great news.”
“This is a matter of being able to vote when you are otherwise registered and eligible,” he wrote in a text. “Voting Rights 1, Bad Guys 0.”
College Republicans at IU President Dillon Burns did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Executive and lead policy director of Count US IN, Jalyn Radziminski, said in an email to the IDS that the ruling was a “victory” to every student in Indiana who wouldn’t otherwise get to vote in the state because of the bill.
“This law was never about election integrity — it was about silencing the voices of young Hoosiers who want to hold their elected representatives accountable at the ballot box,” Radziminski wrote.
A status conference in the case is scheduled for June 9. It is expected to go to trial in January 2027.
