Olivia Zink
Role at the time: Coalition for Open Democracy executive director
Statement summary
Zink, whose group brought the lawsuit, says 18-year-old citizens keep their right to vote and that a student ID still shows identity with a photo and name.
“If you’re 18 and you’re a U.S. citizen, you still have a constitutional right to vote, and even though the state legislature changed the law to say that student IDs no longer count to prove your identity, remember it’s just a proof of identity ... It has your picture and your name.”
The Dartmouth interviews Olivia Zink and quotes a statement supplied by Ross Berry about HB 323. Their positions predate the October injunction.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is the state's categorical exclusion of student IDs from consideration under existing identity-verification safeguards, which Secretary of State David Scanlan's April 23 directive set out. Zink argued that a student ID is "just a proof of identity" that carries "your picture and your name", an argument that the cards should still count as evidence of identity. We labeled it Condemned. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, since Zink disputes the view that the cards are inadequate; it loses because the argument is aimed at keeping the cards usable to prove identity, which the exclusion prevents.