Monday, June 29, 2026
Title: Our Right to Vote is on the Ballot: Why Bloomington Students Can—and Should—Stand Their Ground
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently blocked student voters in Bloomington. By pausing a lower court's ruling against Indiana's student ID ban, the court made it legal to reject university IDs at the polls. If you attempt to vote using your Indiana University ID, you will be turned away or forced to use a provisional ballot that may not count. This decision assaults youth civic participation, but it cannot be the final word. Bloomington students denied their constitutional right to vote can take direct, immediate action—and here is exactly how to do it. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Do not sit at home or quietly accept a rejected ballot. Go to the polls and intentionally offer only your student ID.
Forcing the state to turn you away based solely on your university identification establishes a concrete legal injury. Because you can return later with a state-accepted ID to ensure your actual vote counts, you risk nothing electorally—but you gain everything legally.
Indiana history proves this playbook works. In 1998, when Indianapolis set up illegal drug roadblocks, a citizen named Joell Palmer heard about it on television, jumped in his car, and went out to hunt down the checkpoint to confront the injustice. He was unlawfully searched, but he did not back down. He took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, won a landmark 6–3 victory, and forced the city to pay him $10,000 in damages.
If you go to the polls and get turned away for using your student ID, you follow Palmer's exact blueprint. You immediately exit the booth with the legal standing required to strike back.
From there, the course of action is clear: file a Help America Vote Act (HAVA) complaint, file a State Tort Claims complaint, and immediately sue the state or join an ongoing mass lawsuit.
We urge Bloomington student voting coalitions, campus legal clinics, and civil rights organizations to mobilize. Set up rapid-response networks outside polling places to help students document these rejections. Pair those students with civil rights attorneys to file lawsuits. When governments suppress your rights, the most effective response is to sue. If Indiana refuses to accept your student ID at the ballot box, force them to accept your lawsuit in a federal court. [1]
Robbin Stewart is the GOP candidate for Marion County Clerk. [1]
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