From the beginning of its brief, nonillustrious existence, Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission had a special connection to New Hampshire. Trump launched the commission to justify his claim that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, many of them in the Granite State. He placed New Hampshire’s Democratic Secretary of State Bill Gardner on the panel to give the group a phony patina of bipartisanship. The commission also traveled to the state for its second and last meeting, an acrimonious affair during which co-chairman Kris Kobach defended his false allegation that thousands of illegal votes swung the vote in New Hampshire in 2016.
In early January, the commission disbanded in response to a lawsuit by a Democratic member who was iced out of discussions by his Republican colleagues. The hunt for illegal voting in New Hampshire, however, will continue apace. Last year, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a law requiring the state to investigate voters who fail to provide certain documents after casting a ballot. Gardner appointed the state’s former Deputy Attorney General Orville “Bud” Fitch to carry out the work. Fitch will soon pass along a list of suspects to the attorney general’s office so prosecutors can bring charges against these allegedly fraudulent voters.
How did New Hampshire wind up with a powerful voter fraud czar given that there’s no proof voter fraud is an actual problem in New Hampshire? The story begins with a trade-off the state made with the federal government years ago. Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act in 1993, requiring states to make voter registration simple and accessible.
The next year, to obtain an exemption from the NVRA—and thus free itself from mandates like offering registration at motor vehicle agencies—New Hampshire’s Republican governor and legislature agreed to enact same-day voter registration, allowing new voters to both register and cast their ballots on Election Day.
Full Article: Meet Bud Fitch, New Hampshire’s new vote fraud czar..