New Hampshire: Federal judge sends lawsuits challenging new voting law back to state court | WMUR

Following a weekend of legal maneuvering, a federal judge has sent two lawsuits challenging the state’s controversial new Republican-backed law tightening voter registration requirements back to the state Superior Court, where the claims were initially filed. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante came after attorneys for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and League of Women Voters amended their separate, but almost identical, complaints to remove allegations that the new law violates provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Instead, attorneys for the Democrats and the League said, they have now focused their suits on alleged violations of the New Hampshire Constitution in the law formerly known as Senate Bill 3.

New Hampshire: Data on Out-of-State IDs Fuels Cries of ‘Fraud’ in 2016 Election | NHPR

A newly released report from the New Hampshire Secretary of State and Department of Safety says a majority of people who used out-of-state IDs to register in last November’s elections haven’t registered vehicles in New Hampshire or gotten in-state drivers licenses in the months since. While this data alone doesn’t provide proof of voter fraud, as NHPR has noted before, it’s quickly become fodder in an ongoing debate about New Hampshire’s voting requirements. The data came in response to a request from House Speaker Shawn Jasper, who said he was seeking the statistics in part to inform future voting law changes. Among other things, Jasper asked for information on whether those who register to vote in New Hampshire also obtain driver’s licenses or car registrations here.

New Hampshire: Federal election audit questions HAVA spending | Union Leader

A federal performance audit said New Hampshire failed to get prior approval to use $1 million in federal election grant money as part of a $3.7 million renovation to the state archives building. This was one of four conditions found in the 76-page audit the U.S. Election Assistance Commission published in the past week and posted in the Federal Register. State election officials said they have been trying for more than seven years to get retroactive approval of that archives building spending state lawmakers first approved in 2003. New Hampshire is one of the last states in the country to undergo this audit, which is mandatory under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

New Hampshire: Election-law lawsuit by Democratic party to become federal case | Union Leader

A lawsuit by the N.H. Democratic party to block implementation of a new election law is about to become a federal case. Lawyers for the defendants — Secretary of State William Gardner and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald — filed court motions on Thursday to have the lawsuit removed from Superior Court in Nashua and transferred to U.S. District Court in Concord. On the same day, the Democratic Party filed motions to have its lawsuit married to a virtually identical action filed by the League of Women Voters, increasing the likelihood that the lawsuits will be combined and heard in federal court.

New Hampshire: Secretary of State’s Office Examines Processes After Disclosure of Nonpublic Info on Voter Checklists | NHPR

Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan says the office is reevaluating its guidance to cities and towns after “handwritten confidential, non-public information” was found in the public voter checklists of more than 40 New Hampshire communities. Scanlan said his office conducts regular training with local pollworkers covering all kinds of angles of the state’s election laws, but they could do a better job explaining what information should and should not appear on those documents when training local election workers. “We talk to them about the proper way to mark a checklist,” Scanlan said. “In the past, though, I don’t think we have been specific saying that you should not put extraneous stuff on the checklist, because it’s a public document.”

New Hampshire: Why Is Bill Gardner Giving Cover To Trump’s Bogus Voter Fraud Panel? | TPM

For four decades, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner (D) has earned bipartisan reverence for keeping his state’s primaries first in the nation. So why is he spending that hard-earned capital giving bipartisan cover to President Trump’s controversial voter fraud panel? … “I personally wish that he had declined to be involved,” Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a frequent Trump critic, told TPM. “It gives this farce a sense of legitimacy.” … Gardner has said he joined the Trump commission to prove whether or not there’s widespread voter fraud — something he’s much more skeptical of than others on the commission. But many argue that his mere presence fuels the insanity he’s trying to knock down, giving Trump and Kobach bipartisan cover.

New Hampshire: Handwritten notes on N.H. voter checklists stall release to Trump fraud panel | Concord Monitor

New Hampshire election checklists being compiled for President Donald Trump’s electoral commission won’t be on their way to Washington anytime soon because they have to be cleaned of some voters’ personal information, including the identity of some potential victims of abuse. Review of the lists of voters compiled by more than 200 different town and city supervisors of the checklist and clerks found 51 polling place checklists from 42 communities “contained handwritten information that was either clearly confidential information or information which is not required for the election day checklist,” according to a memo released Tuesday from Secretary of State William Gardner and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald. “This information includes, among other things, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and telephone numbers.”

New Hampshire: Gardner invites Schumer to fraud commission meeting | Union Leader

Secretary of State Bill Gardner has invited Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York to address President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity when it meets in New Hampshire next month. The invitation comes days after Schumer, in a national opinion column, called on Trump to disband the commission saying it was critical in the wake of the racist march on Charlottesville that turned deadly this month. “We need more than just words – we also need action,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in an opinion piece first published at Medium. “And I believe that one important way that Congress can begin to heal this painful divide in our country when we return in September is by showing that we can come together to stop the systemic disenfranchisement of American voters.”

New Hampshire: Voters, advocates sue to block new law toughening voter registration | The Boston Globe

The League of Women Voters of New Hampshire and three New Hampshire voters are suing state officials to block a new law that toughens voter registration requirements, rules that civil rights advocates say amount to intimidation designed to discourage thousands of young residents from voting. The lawsuit, which was filed in state court Wednesday morning, challenges a measure New Hampshire’s GOP Governor Chris Sununu signed in July tightening the requirements for registering to vote in the state. Specifically, would-be voters must provide documentary evidence, such as a driver’s license or utility bill, that New Hampshire is their place of domicile — or their primary home — and that they plan to stay for longer than a temporary stint.

New Hampshire: Democratic Party challenges new voter law | Associated Press

The head of New Hampshire’s Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a new state law that requires voters who move to the state within 30 days of an election to provide proof that they intend to stay. The party contends it presents confusing, unnecessary and intimidating hurdles to voting. Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley said the law amounts to voter suppression. He’s asking for a judge to declare the law, signed by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in July, unconstitutional. The lawsuit names Attorney General Gordon MacDonald and Secretary of State William Gardner as defendants. A statement from MacDonald’s office says the law is presumed to be constitutional. “The Department of Justice will defend it vigorously and we are confident it will be sustained,” the statement said.

New Hampshire: ACLU, state come to terms on release of voter data to Trump fraud commission | Union Leader

The Secretary of State will proceed with the release of information from voter checklists to a presidential commission on election fraud, now that a lawsuit filed by two New Hampshire lawmakers and the ACLU to stop the release has been resolved. The resolution was announced in a Nashua courtroom just as a hearing was about to get under way Monday on a request for an injunction to stop Secretary of State Bill Gardner from providing the information to the election commission. The case came down to interpretation of language within the same state statute (RSA 654), which in one part states “the information contained on the checklist of a town or city … is public information subject to (the Right to Know law),” but in another section regarding the statewide database maintained by the Secretary of State, says “The voter database shall be private and confidential and shall not be subject to (the Right to Know law).”

New Hampshire: Challenge to voting commission heads to court | Associated Press

While other states have started sending voter information to President Donald Trump’s commission investigating election fraud, a judge will determine whether New Hampshire will comply. A hearing is set for Monday in a lawsuit filed by two lawmakers and a civil liberties group hoping to stop Secretary of State Bill Gardner from sending voter roll data to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The case, filed early last month, had been on hold pending the outcome of a similar lawsuit in Washington. In that case, a judge denied the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s request to block the data collection, though the advocacy group is appealing the ruling.

New Hampshire: ACLU suit says voter list restrictions have roots in 2006 bill | WMUR

A court petition by the American Civil Liberties Union and two state lawmakers seeking to block the secretary of state from sending voter data to President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission cites a 2006 state law that restricts how such voter information can be disseminated. But the sponsor of that bill 11 years ago, former House Speaker William O’Brien, said Monday the legislation was not intended to keep voter information that is already available publicly from the federal government. The ACLU’s reinstated petition to block Secretary of State William Gardner from sending publicly available voter data to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, on which Gardner serves, says that in 2006, Gardner’s office supported the O’Brien-sponsored bill that restricted the use of the data.

New Hampshire: ACLU-NH mulls constitutional challenge to voting bill signed by Sununu | WMUR

A day after Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law legislation to tighten voter registration identification requirements, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire said it is reviewing whether to mount a constitutional challenge. ACLU legal director Gilles Bissonnette, who was one of the most outspoken critics of Senate Bill 3 throughout the legislative session, in a statement called it “an attack on eligible voters’ voting rights.”  Bissonnette said the bill improperly allows people to be fined for “doing nothing wrong other than not returning to a government agency with certain paperwork — paperwork that these legitimate voters may not have. Senate Bill 3 is also a violation of voters’ privacy by sending government agents to voters’ homes to check their documents. Requiring people to accept this government intrusion as a condition of voting will chill the right to vote.”

New Hampshire: Law toughens voting registration requirements | Associated Press

A new law in New Hampshire requires that voters moving to the state within 30 days of an election provide proof that they intend to stay and subjects them to an investigation if they can’t provide the proof and want to vote in future elections. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump alleged widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire, although there’s been no evidence to support this. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed the bill into law Monday, effective in 60 days. It provides that those who can’t provide proof such as a driver’s license or lease would still be allowed to vote, but if they don’t follow up with elections officials within 10 to 30 days, authorities could go to their homes to investigate. In cases where officials can’t verify someone’s address, the voter would be removed from the voter rolls for future elections.

New Hampshire: Sununu signs controversial GOP voter registration measure into law | WMUR

A bill to tighten New Hampshire’s voter registration identification requirements – one of the major Republican initiatives of the 2017 legislative session – was quietly signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu on Monday. The governor’s office included Senate Bill 3 on a list of 18 bills he signed into law. There was no public bill signing ceremony, as had been the case when he signed several other high-profile bills in recent weeks. … The signing came amid a related controversy surrounding Sununu’s support for Secretary of State William Gardner’s intention to provide state voter data to President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

New Hampshire: Bill tightening voter registration requirements passes in the House | Union Leader

A Senate-passed bill that modifies the definition of domicile to tighten up on voter registration in New Hampshire passed the House with amendments on Thursday, 191-162. SB 3 has been the focus of efforts by the Republican majority in the state Legislature to eliminate what they call “drive-by voting” by non-residents such as campaign workers or tourists. If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu as expected, a person registering to vote 30 or fewer days before an election would be required to provide the date they established their domicile in the state, and would have to complete a registration form to prove it.

New Hampshire: House majority leader predicts narrow passage of GOP election reform bill | WMUR

Republicans and Democrats are ramping up their lobbying and public outreach efforts ahead of a pivotal New Hampshire House vote Thursday on a much-debated GOP voter identification reform bill. Republicans say it closes a “domicile loophole,” while Democrats say it’s an attempt to legislate “voter suppression.” House Majority Leader Richard Hinch, R-Merrimack, told WMUR he is confident the bill will “narrowly” pass the House, but a key conservative Republican lawmaker is not so sure.

New Hampshire: Disagreement at State House over payment for Gardner’s participation on Trump election commission | WMUR

Top Democrats and Republicans in the New Hampshire Legislature disagreed Monday on whether Secretary of State William Gardner should use taxpayer funds and state time for his activities as a member of President Donald Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity. House Democratic Leader Steve Shurtleff asked Gardner to participate on his own time and not use state money. But Republican House Speaker Shawn Jasper and Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley disagreed and said the state should pay for Gardner’s travel to and from — and participation in — commission meetings.

New Hampshire: Election reform bill clears major hurdle in House | New Hampshire Union Leader

The House Election Law Committee voted 11-9 along party lines on Tuesday to endorse an amended version of an election reform bill designed to toughen the verification requirements for voting. If SB 3 becomes law, voters would still be allowed to register and vote on Election Day even if they lack proof of domicile, but they would have to fill out a lengthy affidavit and be required to submit various forms of proof within 10 days of the election.

New Hampshire: Voter ID Bill Moves Forward | Concord Monitor

In a partisan vote, the House election law committee endorsed a bill on Tuesday that stiffens the requirements for people who register to vote within 30 days of an election. Senate Bill 3 now will go to the full House for a vote. The bill applies to people who register to vote within 30 days of an election and requires them to provide proof they live in New Hampshire and intend to stay. People who show up to the polls to register and don’t have a utility bill, a lease, a car registration or other documentation could still vote. But they have to sign a paper pledging to come back later with a required form of proof. Should a voter not return within 30 days, the bill gives local election officials authority to investigate suspected fraud.

New Hampshire: Lawsuit challenges absentee ballot signature process | Associated Press

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday that challenges the process of validating signatures on absentee ballots in New Hampshire. The suit says current law allows election officials to reject an absentee ballot without giving notice to the voter, if they think there’s a signature mismatch in the voter’s paperwork. It also says it puts moderators in the difficult position of acting as handwriting experts. The ACLU filed the suit against the secretary of state’s office on behalf of three absentee voters whose signatures were rejected. All voted in the 2016 general election, but didn’t learn their vote wasn’t counted until this year. One of them, Mary Saucedo, 94, of Manchester, is legally blind and is allowed to obtain assistance in completing the absentee ballot process. Her husband helps her.

New Hampshire: ACLU sues New Hampshire for rejecting hundreds of absentee ballots | Reuters

The American Civil Liberties Union sued New Hampshire on Wednesday after the state invalidated the absentee ballots of hundreds of voters in the November 2016 election, including a blind woman, because of mismatched signatures, the civil rights group said. The lawsuit was brought against William Gardner, the state’s secretary of state, and New Hampshire’s voter signature-matching law, which the ACLU said violates the Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act. “People should not be denied their fundamental right to vote because of penmanship but that’s exactly what is happening in New Hampshire,” Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in a statement. The state said it could not yet comment on the lawsuit.

New Hampshire: House panel reviews proposed technical changes to Senate-passed voting bill | WMUR

A New Hampshire House committee Tuesday reviewed controversial legislation that would tighten identification requirements for voting and registering to vote, with the bill expected to be presented to the full House within the next few weeks. Senate Bill 3 has divided lawmakers and activists along party lines. The Senate passed it by a 14-9 vote on March 30, sending it to the House. The House Election Law Committee spent several hours Tuesday going through the bill line-by-line on Tuesday, discussing technical changes proposed by the committee vice chairwoman, Rep. Yvonne Dean-Bailey, R-Northwood.

New Hampshire: GOP-backed election bill may complicate voting for homeless | Associated Press

Every Election Day, Chrissy Simonds makes the rounds to homeless shelters and transitional housing in Manchester urging people to vote. Simonds, who was once homeless, often faces skepticism from people who tell her their vote doesn’t matter. Still, she presses on. In November, she convinced seven people to vote — a record, if small. But Simonds and other advocates fear a bill in the New Hampshire legislature will create further barriers to voting for a population that already feels marginalized. The Republican-authored bill adds new requirements for anyone who registers within 30 days of an election to provide documentation, such as a lease or a driver’s license, to show where they live and that they plan to stay there. For people without a fixed address, such documents may not exist or be difficult to access.

New Hampshire: What Would Changing Registration Rules in New Hampshire Mean For Student Voters? | NHPR

Last fall, University of New Hampshire student Rachel Berg was one of the more than 3,000 people in Durham who registered to vote on Election Day. And she came prepared. “I had to bring a few forms of ID, I don’t remember exactly what,” Berg recalled while sitting in a corner of the UNH student center last week. “License, I think. School ID. And maybe my passport, just to be safe.” Berg, who’s from Grantham originally, also needed to be able to prove she lived in Durham. In her case, that meant bringing along a package her parents used to mail an orthopedic ankle brace to her on-campus apartment.

New Hampshire: Sununu to sign into law bill allowing ratification of snowstorm-delayed local election results | WMUR

Gov. Chris Sununu will sign into law legislation allowing officials of towns and school districts that postponed their elections due to the March 14 snowstorm to take action to ratify the results of those elections, his spokesman said Thursday. In rapid fire action, the House and Senate suspended their rules and established a committee of conference, which quickly reached agreement on a minor change to the bill. They then suspended their respective rules to consider the committee of conference report, which was adopted by the Senate on voice vote and by the House on a roll call of 294-42. Those votes sent the bill to Sununu’s desk, and spokesman Michael Todd told WMUR he will sign it.

New Hampshire: House debates bill that would change voting rights | WMUR

Supporters of a voting-rights bill said Tuesday that it’s aimed at cutting down on voter fraud, but opponents called it a solution in search of a problem. Senate Bill 3 would change the definition of “domicile” for voting purposes. People living in New Hampshire for 30 days or fewer before an election wouldn’t be able to vote unless they could prove intent to stay longer. Anyone registering within 30 days of an election or on Election Day would have to fill out a form, and if they don’t have proof of residency that meets the bill’s requirements, they would have to present that proof to local officials later.

New Hampshire: Showdown over controversial voting rights bill moves to state House | NH1

Is election law reform the issue that unites Republicans in the state House of Representatives? House Majority Leader Dick Hinch tells NH1 News that he thinks the bill approved by the state Senate will also “pass the House.” Hinch spoke with NH1 News on Monday, the day before the battle over the measure that would tighten New Hampshire’s voting laws by adding new requirements to prove eligibility moves to the House. The House Election Law Committee holds a 10am Tuesday hearing in Representatives Hall on the much-argued about measure. The bill, officially known as SB3, mandates that anyone who registers to vote either prior to or on Election Day itself, thanks to the state’s same-day registration law, present definitive proof that they reside in the Granite State.

New Hampshire: Town Clerk: GOP Voting Bill “Overwhelmingly Complicated And Confusing” | New Hampshire Public Radio

The uproar over Senate Bill 3 shows no signs of abating. The bill’s lead sponsor, Republican state senator Regina Birdsell, insists it simply ensures that each vote cast in New Hampshire is valid and that voters meet certain requirements. She says she removed elements that were especially objectionable to opponents, including involvement of local police in helping to confirm voters’ addresses. “We are looking to make sure that anyone who casts a ballot has a stake in the community that they say they’re domiciled in,” she said on The Exchange. Birdsell denied that college students or members of the military will be adversely affected.