The Secretary of State’s office had to backtrack this week on its instructions about how to handle voters flagged through the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck System. It initially suggested local checklist supervisors could remove people from local rolls without notifying them first. The Crosscheck system is a multi-state database that’s been promoted as a tool to catch potential cases of voter fraud — in part, because it’s designed to flag people who are registered in multiple states. New Hampshire agreed to join the program last year. (The system has been championed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the chair of the Trump administration’s election commission who recently came under fire for alleging that out-of-state voters swayed the outcome of New Hampshire’s elections.)
In most cases – unless there’s been official notice that the voter has died or moved elsewhere – election supervisors who think a voter should be removed from the checklist are required by state law to send that voter a notice before taking any action. That way, the voter has a chance make their case before they’re marked as inactive.
But local election officials who logged into the statewide election website earlier this week were greeted with a different message: a list of local voters who were flagged in the Crosscheck system for being registered in another state, and a directive that it would be okay to strike their names from the checklist.
Full Article: State Sends Mixed Signals to N.H. Towns on Rules for Removing Voters from Checklists | New Hampshire Public Radio.