Organization claims it’s ‘one of the most restrictive voting laws in the United States’

By Gabriel Perry, The Laconia Daily Sun

CONCORD — A new voter ID law set to take effect just six days after the Nov. 5 general election is already proving controversial and generating lawsuits. 

The ACLU of New Hampshire, the national American Civil Liberties Union and Ropes & Gray LLP of Boston filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 in the U.S. State District Court-District of New Hampshire to challenge the implementation of House Bill HB 1569, a law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu on Sept. 17. They argue the law makes an unconstitutional change to New Hampshire’s voting regulations and would create barriers to voting and voter registration. 

The new law, introduced in the N.H. House of Representatives in January and sponsored by Republican Bob Lynn of Windham, eliminates exceptions to voter identification, removes voter affidavits as proof of identification and repeals the procedure for affidavit ballots. The new law requires those attempting to register to vote, either on or before the day of the election, to present proof of citizenship, age, domicile, and identity. 

It will require anyone registering to vote for the first time in a New Hampshire election to provide a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers to prove their citizenship and identify at the polls. 
But the group presenting their legal challenge to the new law, which represents the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire, the Coalition for Open Democracy, the Forward Foundation and five “current and future voters,” argues that removing the opportunity to swear an affidavit at the polls on the day of the election would likely result in otherwise eligible voters being turned away from the polls without opportunity to cast their votes. 

Current state law allows an individual who does not have the correct documentation to sign a sworn affidavit attesting to their identification and residence and subsequently vote in an election. The ACLU argues, in its announcement of the lawsuit, that the new law would require proof of citizenship — a passport or birth certificate — in order to register to vote, and characterize that requirement as being “impossible” to fulfill in thousands of cases in which individuals do not have access to those documents. 

“HB 1569 is one of the most restrictive voting laws in the entire United States. No state has successfully done what this law attempts in imposing a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to register to vote for federal elections without an affidavit option,” the announcement reads in part. 

The group also takes issue with new rules regarding “voter challenges.” According to current state law, a prospective voter whose eligibility is challenged by a peer voter or appointed challenger is permitted to cast a ballot through a “challenged voter affidavit.” Changes to that process identified in the new law could disqualify some ballots from being counted and could deprive voters of due process when challenging a ballot, the group argues. 

In the text of the complaint, plaintiffs argue New Hampshire has both high voter turnout and secure elections and that the new law is unnecessary. 

“New Hampshire has secure, high-turnout elections,” the complaint reads. “In the past two general presidential elections in 2016 and 2020, New Hampshire had the third highest turnout in the country, which the state achieved with virtually no voter fraud despite over 1.5 million ballots cast in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.”

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative and the Know Your Vote youth voter guide. The Know Your Vote youth voter guide  project was designed, reported and produced by student and young professional journalists from The Clock,The Concord Monitor, The Equinox, Granite State News Collaborative, Keene State College, The Laconia Daily Sun, The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nashua Ink Link and The Presidency and the Press program at Franklin Pierce University. You can see the full guide at  www.collaborativenh.org/know-your-vote.