Here’s a brief recent history about earlier attempts at voter suppression. In 2018, House Bill 1264, came before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. This legislation amended the definitions of the words “resident” and “residency,” thus requiring individuals to obtain a NH driver’s license and car registration after they vote, which then made it a post-election poll tax. The chief justice of the NH Supreme Court at the time was none other than Mr. Robert Lynn, now a Windham House representative who has brought forth multiple voter suppression bills ever since. He authored the court’s opinion and found the law to be constitutional. Then-Gov. Chris Sununu, who had promised, he "would never support anything that suppresses the student vote", then signed HB 1264 into law.
So much for that “promise”. . .
In 2024, Rep. Lynn introduced HB 1569, making it harder for some people to vote by doing away with voter affidavits as proof of identification and repeal the procedures for affidavit ballots. This was a system that had worked just fine for years and now this legislation would block many voters the right from even being able to register, let alone cast a ballot.
Well, the bill passed and was hit with lawsuits from the Coalition for Open Democracy, League of Women Voters of NH, ACLU-NH and the Forward Foundation, along with five individuals. The argument is that the new law is unconstitutional under the First and 14th Amendments as it creates barriers for lawful and legal citizens from registering to vote and requires first-time voters to show proof of citizenship. Those who favor the law say it is critical to prevent noncitizens from voting in elections; with those who oppose, fear it will stop legitimate voters who don’t readily have the newly required documents.
Fun fact: since 2016 there’s been fifteen voter fraud convictions in NH. These convictions consisted of out-of-state people voting in NH, people with a home in NH and another state but voted in both states and people voting in two different NH towns.
Fun fact #2: this new law is now one of the strictest in the nation.
Fun fact #3: NH has no online voter registration. Forty-two other states do.
This current litigation against HB 1569 is expected to take about two weeks before a decision is made.
No wonder why Lynn would like to see CACR 9 pass and become part of the state’s Constitution. It’s all about the control, and I don’t mean for the good of local control. . .