Lawsuit targeting Indiana's student ID ban for voting pulls in Monroe County's election board

On Thursday, Monroe County's election board has an executive session scheduled to discuss pending litigation.

That's because the local election board is a named defendant in a complaint that has been filed in federal court, which alleges that a new state law banning student IDs for election purposes is unconstitutional. The law was enacted during this year's legislative session.

Under Indiana's Open Door Law, public agencies are required to give notice of their executive sessions, but such meetings are closed to the public. Discussion of pending litigation is one of the few reasons that a public agency can hold an executive session.

The legal complaint claims that SB 10, which is set to take effect on July 1 this year, violates the First, Fourteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, by imposing unjustified burdens on young voters and intentionally discriminating based on age.

The new law says that the term "proof of identification" for voting purposes "does not include a document issued by an educational institution." That has the effect of banning the use of student IDs for voting in the state of Indiana.

The plaintiffs are asking for an order from the court blocking the enforcement of the law—that is, an injunction.

What is the lawsuit's connection to Monroe County's election board? It stems from the fact that one of the plaintiffs, Josh Montagne, is a Bloomington resident and also an Indiana University sophomore. According to the complaint, Montagne has used his student ID to vote in the 2023 city election, in the 2024 primary election, and in the 2024 general election.

When Montagne voted in the 2024 general election, The B Square was there on Oct. 9 when he cast his ballot early in person. But that was not his first attempt. When he had earlier changed his address for his voter registration, Montagne's file was improperly flagged as requiring additional identification at the time he voted—some piece of ID that included an address.

IU Crimson Cards don't include an address, which meant his student ID was determined not to be sufficient when he first tried to vote. When Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Farris looked into the issue, and unflagged his file, he was then able to vote using his Crimson Card.

Montagne is a Monroe County voter, but why is the county election board one of the named defendants in the lawsuit? It's because the election board is responsible for administering the proof of identification requirements for voting, which under the new law include a ban on student IDs. The local election board is also responsible for investigating violations of election laws and referring violations to the state's attorney general or whatever the appropriate prosecuting authority is.

Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Indiana's secretary of state, Diego Morales, the members of the state election commission (Paul Okeson, Suzannah Wilson Overholt, Karen Celestino-Horseman and Litany A. Pyle) and the co-directors of the Indiana Election Division (J. Bradley King, and Angela M. Nussmeyer).

The two plaintiffs other than Montagne are Count US IN, a Fort Wayne-based nonprofit focused on boosting civic engagement among young and marginalized voters, and Women4Change Indiana, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that promotes civic education and voter turnout, particularly among women and students.

There's a status conference for the attorneys and the court scheduled for July 10. Ten days before that, a proposed case management plan is supposed to be filed with the court.