The University of North Florida is mulling updates to its campus card that would make the ID card a viable form of voter identification, as well as changes that would support preferred names.
As reported by student publication, The Spinnaker, the changes were proposed following a meeting of NextGen Florida and students, administrators, and student government. According to a student government spokesperson, the new Osprey 1Card could be approved with printing beginning as soon as next month.
A separate initiative is also in the works that would see a preferred name option implemented for the new campus cards. There is no word yet from student government officials as to how the two initiatives could potentially conflict with one another in practice.
In 2018, NextGen America began focusing on registering and boosting young voter turnouts in eleven states. A spokesperson for the organization says that its Ballot Access Campaign is concerned with implementing on campus cards the signature panel necessary to make a student ID card a valid form of voter identification at the voting booth.
The use of campus cards as a form of voter identification has gathered significant steam in recent months. Most recently, initiatives both at the university level and from higher up the legislative food chain have been met with mixed reception in Texas and North Carolina.