Federal judge blocks New Hampshire's proof of citizenship voter ID law

On Thursday, a federal judge blocked New Hampshire from implementing a law that requires proof of citizenship voter ID. The judge was asked to reverse a previous ruling that struck down the voter ID requirement while the state’s appeal on the ruling is pending at the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Earlier in May, Biden-appointed Judge Samantha Elliott ruled that New Hampshire’s 2024 law to require proof of citizenship to vote is an “unjustifiable burden on the right to vote in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” The ruling blocked the state from enforcing the law.

The law would require that all voters prove they are a citizen of the country in order to register to vote in elections. The law was challenged in court by the New Hampshire Youth Movement, which claimed that providing the documents you need to get a passport or your driver’s license—such as a birth certificate—was too much of a burden on voters.

Elliot ruled that those that can’t prove their citizenship to vote can just rely on the state’s Qualified Voter Affidavit, which has them sign a document claiming that they are eligible to vote. The group that sued the state argued that the law led to 100 people not being able to vote in elections because they didn’t have the documentation to do so.

Elliot said that the 100 voters do not represent everyone that was not able to register to vote in the election.

“The record evidence does not represent the full panoply of New Hampshire voters who were unable to register to vote in an election in 2025 because they did not possess [documentary proof of citizenship],” she said in the opinion.

The refusal to stay the ruling pending an appeal from the recent decision was described as a “win” by the left-wing page Democracy Docket. It also comes as the Trump administration is trying to get a federal version of the New Hampshire law passed, known as the SAVE America Act, which would require that all voters at the national level would have to provide documentation showing they are a citizen of the country.

Despite polling showing that even the majority of Democrats are in favor of having voter ID laws, left-wing politicians have claimed that requiring such proof of citizenship or voter verification is akin to “Jim Crow 2.0,” according to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.