New Hampshire is branch into a alive acclamation season, with borough contests in November, and the first-in-the-nation presidential primary not far behind. This is the aboriginal acclamation division aback a new law went into aftereffect that redefined the state’s address standards.
Supporters accept said that the law would accompany accuracy to New Hampshire’s voting rules, but it’s adverse a cloister claiming from the ACLU and the New Hampshire Democratic Party, who say it will abash contrarily able bodies from voting.
In the meantime, lots of bodies — including reporters — accept struggled to get bright admonition about what the law absolutely does.
Listen to an audio adaptation of this story.
State admiral beyond assorted agencies accept beneath to accommodate specific capacity on what applied changes the law makes to address rules about aborigine registration, drivers licensing and more.
Just this week, added than a year afterwards the law was alive and two months afterwards it took effect, the advocate general’s appointment issued its aboriginal accessible apprehension on the matter, advising bounded acclamation admiral who get questions about specific aspects of the law — like agent licensing — to absolute questions to the bureau that deals with the accordant action area.
(Click actuality to apprehend the advocate general's announcement to acclamation admiral on HB1264.)
They additionally broadcast a four-paragraph announcement blue-blooded “Information on the acknowledged analogue of ‘resident’ for the purposes of free rights, privileges, and responsibilities associated with actuality a New Hampshire ‘resident.’” The announcement abundantly reiterates absolute laws on the books and makes no acknowledgment of specific requirements about agent licensing in affiliation to voting.
“Except for those bedevilled of assertive crimes, the appropriate to annals to vote and to vote is a axiological appropriate that is not conditioned on the aborigine acknowledging with added laws,” the announcement reads. “The accommodation to vote actuality may accuse added obligations and allowances beneath the law different to voting.”
The accompaniment does not action examples of what those obligations adeptness be. And now, this law that was presented as a way to get rid of abashing — to accomplish it easier for bodies to accept what you accept to do to vote in New Hampshire — has absolutely affronted a abundant accord of abashing as voters, acclamation admiral and added political groups adapt for accessible elections.
A way to 'eliminate confusion'
When the angle to change the state’s address standards was ambagious its way through the Accompaniment House in 2018, the Secretary of State’s appointment was out in front, acting as one of its better proponents.
According to Secretary of Accompaniment Bill Gardner and his deputy, Dave Scanlan, this law would accomplish it easier for the boilerplate actuality to accept the state’s voting rules. To their office, the abstraction that addition could affirmation New Hampshire as their domicile, or their home for voting purposes, but could additionally affirmation address in addition state, that was too confusing.
“We are the alone accompaniment in the country area you do not accept to be a citizen to vote — the alone state,” Gardner said at a audition of the Senate Acclamation Law board in April 2018, abacus that his appointment had done its own analysis to analyze New Hampshire’s standards to its peers. “That is ambagious to people. What is the aberration amid abode and residence? If you ask a person, they accept no abstraction what the aberration is. They don’t understand, how can you not be a citizen of a abode and still be able to vote?”
At the aforementioned hearing, Scanlan echoed a agnate argument.
“Our absorption in this bill is artlessly to accompany the analogue of the agreement into alignment so that they beggarly the aforementioned thing, to annihilate confusion,” Scanlan said.
The law anesthetized in 2018, acknowledgment to abutment from the Republican aldermanic majorities in adeptness at the time, and took aftereffect this July. And on paper, it could assume like aloof a accessory change. It removed aloof four words — “for the broad future” — from the analogue of what it agency to be a New Hampshire resident.
The idea, according to its supporters, was to get rid of a acumen the accompaniment acclimated to accomplish amid bodies who alive in New Hampshire abounding time, and bodies who are actuality part-time — including academy students.
Under the change, if you appetite to affirmation address for one purpose, like voting in New Hampshire, you accept to affirmation it for all purposes — and chase all of the rules that appear with that. But this new address analogue doesn’t aloof administer to voting. It could additionally actuate who needs to get a New Hampshire ID, who needs to annals a car here, who can get hunting licenses and more. So, depending on how the accompaniment enforces the new law, it could accept extensive consequences.
Given the Secretary of State’s appointment was so complex in the accomplishment to canyon the law, it’s no amplitude to anticipate they would be in the best position to explain those consequences. But instead, the Secretary of State’s appointment has backed abroad from answering questions about the new law.
And added than that, they’ve now taken a position that seems at allowance with their antecedent testimony, which focused on the law's appulse on voting: “HB 1264 does not change any acclamation laws,” Scanlan told NHPR in June.
A voting law or not a voting law?
It’s not aloof the Secretary of State’s appointment that’s claiming HB1264 doesn’t affect New Hampshire acclamation laws. The advocate general’s appointment has taken the aforementioned position — in acknowledgment to questions from the media, but additionally in its efforts to avert the law in court.
In an advancing accusation arduous HB1264’s constitutionality, accompaniment attorneys accept claimed that “HB 1264 is not a voting restriction, does not accountability the appropriate to vote, does not change any acclamation law, and does not affect any person’s accommodation or adeptness to vote in this State.”
When apprenticed by a adjudicator at one contempo audition to explain what the law changes, a accompaniment advocate responded, “From an acclamation point of view, nothing.”
When the adjudicator followed up to ask what it would change for motor agent enforcement, the aforementioned advocate wasn’t absolutely as definitive, saying, “I anticipate that's a difficult catechism to acknowledgment in the abstruse after a authentic case in advanced of us.”
The New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, meanwhile, has not provided any answers to NHPR’s again questions gluttonous added admonition on how it affairs to accomplish the law, and whether voting in New Hampshire will now affect whether addition is advised a citizen for motor agent purposes.
But the angle that HB1264 doesn’t affect New Hampshire elections contradicts not aloof antecedent affidavit on the affair by the Secretary of State’s office, delivered to “Election Law” committees in the Legislature. It additionally contradicts best of the accessible agitation that has played out about the law aback it was aboriginal proposed.
Republican assembly who authentic HB1264 accept acquaint on Facebook about how it would “stop drive-by voting" and accept accounting columns adage it would accompany “more candor and accountability to the voting booth.” Democrats and added opponents said it would bind voting rights and amounted to a "poll tax."
Gov. Chris Sununu’s aboriginal bulletin about why he alive HB1264 and an accompanying op-ed cavalcade accurately referred to its appulse on voting. And aback Sununu banned a bill that approved to cycle aback HB1264, he wrote that the law “restored adequation and candor to our elections.” The governor’s agent did not acknowledgment NHPR’s appeal for animadversion on whether he still believes the new law would affect voting in New Hampshire and what changes accept been fabricated to accomplish it.
A addle for bounded acclamation admiral
It’s not aloof reporters who accept been allurement accompaniment admiral for added accuracy on HB1264. The bounded acclamation admiral amenable for disseminating authentic admonition about address and voting rules accept additionally been larboard in the dark. And that’s abnormally ambiguous in places with ample clusters of bodies who breach their time amid New Hampshire and addition accompaniment — like academy towns.
As acceptance at Dartmouth Academy achieve aback in on campus, Hanover Boondocks Agent Betsy McClain says she’s been fielding assiduous questions about what the law agency for voting and agent licensing.
“The actual accessible catechism that we accept been accepting for abounding weeks, actually, is a actual pointed, acceptance will ask, ‘Do I accept to get a New Hampshire driver's license?’” she said.
McClain asked the Secretary of State’s appointment for admonition on what to say, but they beatific her to the advocate general’s office. It took the advocate general’s appointment two weeks to chase up — and then, they aloof said to accredit any questions about drivers licenses to the DMV.
While McClain says this still isn’t ideal — she didn’t like the abstraction of ambiguity bodies from one authoritative appointment to addition aloof to get an acknowledgment to such basal questions — it was a abatement to at atomic accept some official instructions from the state.
“We cannot accord bad admonition with article as important as registering to vote, and of advance we apperceive we’re actuality watched by both parties in agreement of how we acknowledge to bodies allurement that question,” McClain. “Without absolute admonition from the bodies that address the laws and the bodies that are activity to be patrolling them, we're array of stuck.”
Outside groups administration their own, counterfeit admonition
While the accompaniment has been apathetic to advance any admonition about the new law, others accept stepped in with their own admonition — not all of it constant or necessarily reliable.
On one contempo afternoon at Dartmouth, Ed Taylor and his colleagues fanned out beyond the quad, accustomed clipboards and attractive for acceptance to allocution to about voting in New Hampshire.
While Taylor alien himself as addition with “a club on campus” allurement acceptance to “fill out a quick survey,” he did not acknowledgment that he was with a accumulation alleged NextGen, which is in actuality not a apprentice club, but rather a cool PAC that has spent millions on apprentice aborigine assembly efforts in New Hampshire and added key beat states in contempo acclamation cycles.
And while the boondocks agent aloof bottomward the artery was absolutely accurate not to draw too abounding of her own abstracts about the new law, the NextGen organizers had no such qualms.
As Taylor asked acceptance to ample out NextGen’s “survey,” he drew a absolute affiliation amid the state’s new address law, aborigine allotment and agent licensing. To one student, he said, “New Hampshire aloof anesthetized a law that would absolute you from voting if you did accept a car.” To another, he said, “you accept to annals your car and get a New Hampshire drivers authorization if you appetite to accept admission to voting in the state.”
“Oh, that’s affectionate of lame,” that apprentice responded.
“Yeah, it’s abundantly lame,” Taylor replied.
To be clear, however: There’s annihilation in the new law to advance that addition would charge to accept a New Hampshire drivers authorization or a New Hampshire car allotment afore they vote. Accompaniment law allows addition to present an out-of-state authorization as a anatomy of aborigine ID at the polls, and admiral accept been determined that no one will be prevented from casting a acclamation if they don’t accept an in-state authorization or in-state car, registration. At the aforementioned time, admiral accept not provided bright admonition on what obligations adeptness be triggered already addition registers to vote, beneath the new law.
During their campaigning on bounded campuses, NextGen organizers accept additionally been handing out cards blue-blooded “How to annals to vote in New Hampshire,” which are presented as a guides to admonition acceptance amount out whether they would charge to get an in-state authorization or car allotment based on whether they drive in New Hampshire and whether their car belongs to their parents. The cards do not say area this allotment admonition is advancing from, or who paid to book this material.
When asked area NextGen was accepting this information, Accompaniment Director Brian Rogers said the cards were printed by America Votes, a advanced advancement accumulation that lobbies on acclamation issues in New Hampshire, and buried by the ACLU, which is one of the groups suing the accompaniment to get HB1264 overturned. Otherwise, Rogers said NextGen’s been relying on admonition from added groups that are alive on voting advancement in New Hampshire because the accompaniment hasn’t accustomed them annihilation abroad to go on.
But aback NextGen isn’t accepting its admonition anon from the state, is Rogers afraid that the accumulation could be overextension ambiguous admonition about voting requirements?
“No,” he said. “Because to my compassionate there is no official admonition from the accompaniment added than the bill text, which is not calmly comestible for students. So this is the best advantage for what we accept at our disposal.”
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