Purdue to offer vote-ready IDs for Mobile First students eligible to vote in general election this fall

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The PurdueVotes Coalition and Purdue University’s ID Card Operations/Support will assist Purdue students needing a vote-ready physical identification to participate in the municipal election in November and the primary and the general elections next year.

Purdue students registered to vote in Tippecanoe County will either need a hard-copy Purdue ID with a printed expiration date, or an Indiana driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a military ID or a free Indiana ID card from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Because of Indiana law, mobile IDs are not accepted as voting credentials at polling locations across the state.

Mobile First students who are eligible to vote in this year’s election can receive for free a vote-ready photo ID that meets state election requirements. Mobile First students will be directly notified by the university on the details for obtaining the vote-ready ID during a limited period ahead of the Nov. 7 election.

“The vote-ready physical ID is a viable option for incoming Purdue Mobile First students this fall who were issued mobile credentials as their primary university ID through the Mobile First effort within Purdue Mobile ID rollout,” said Tim Riley, university bursar and assistant controller for Purdue. “While Purdue’s new Mobile ID will not meet the state of Indiana’s identification requirements to vote in municipal elections this fall and the general elections in 2024, this partnership means Purdue Mobile First students can obtain a free vote-ready ID to exercise their right to vote.”

The vote-ready IDs, however, are not equipped with any technology and cannot be used by students in the place of their officially credentialed Purdue Mobile ID, according to Loribeth Hettinger, senior associate bursar of Purdue ID Card Operations/Support.

“We understand there is strong interest by the engaged Purdue students to participate in the democratic process by voting,” said Beth McCuskey, Purdue vice provost for student life. “We want to be helpful to the Purdue students in our community in every way we can. Enfranchising them to vote is another way we can do that.”

Additional Information

• PurdueVotes Coalition
• Purdue ID Card Operations/Support
• Roger C. Stewart Leadership & Professional Development Department (LEAD)
• Tippecanoe County Election Board

Students can register to vote in their home county and state, or they can register to vote in Tippecanoe County, but they can only register and vote in one place, according to Melissa Gruver, senior associate director for student leadership and civic engagement in the Roger C. Stewart Leadership & Professional Development Department who co-chairs the PurdueVotes Coalition.

To be eligible to vote, students must be a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old on or before Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 7. Key election dates this fall:

• Oct. 10 — Deadline to register to vote in Indiana.
• Oct. 24 — Early voting begins in Tippecanoe County.
• Oct. 26 — Deadline to request an absentee ballot in Indiana.
• Nov. 7 — Election Day voting at Margerum City Hall in West Lafayette.

The PurdueVotes Coalition, with support from the Office of the President and the Roger C. Stewart Leadership & Professional Development Department, is a campuswide committee that includes members from important stakeholder groups that work together to increase student voting rates and help students form the habits of active and engaged citizenship.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Writer and media contact: Phillip Fiorini, pfiorini@purdue.edu, 765-430-6189

Sources: Tim Riley

Beth McCuskey