October 13, 2008
Voter Suppression Made Felony in NH
Voter suppression — purposefully preventing a specific group of people from voting — is now a class B felony in New Hampshire, after a bill proposed by state Rep. David Pierce, D-Grafton, became law this spring. The issue of voter suppression has been closely tied to residents’ efforts to prevent out-of-state college students from voting in New Hampshire.
Pierce, speaking at the College Democrats’ first meeting this term, said that he proposed the legislation in response to reports that conservative groups hoped to dampen youth voter turnout and therefore damage Democrats’ prospects.
Conflicts over the rights of out-of-state college students to participate in New Hampshire elections are nothing new.
In 2006, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch vetoed legislation that would require voters to obtain New Hampshire vehicle registration and driver’s licenses and notify the Department of Safety of address changes within 40 days of declaring state residency.
Currently, college students from out of state can vote in New Hampshire without registering their cars in the state or getting new driver’s licenses. When the bill was vetoed, members of the statewide chapters of the College Republicans and College Democrats hoped Lynch had sent a clear message in support of student participation in local politics.
Reports of voter suppression, however, resurfaced during the 2006 congressional elections. At the College Democrats’ meeting this fall, Pierce said that in 2006, Republican volunteers told some voters that the polls were out of ballots and had closed, which Pierce said was untrue.
Pierce’s bill, HB 1508, passed both House and Senate and was signed by the governor last March. It defines voter suppression as “attempting to prevent or deter another person from voting or registering to vote based on fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or spurious grounds or information,” and makes these actions a class B felony.
In New Hampshire, a class B felony is punishable by one and a half to seven years of jail time.
Common misleading “grounds or information” includes telling prospective voters that if they register to vote in New Hampshire, they will lose financial aid, lose health insurance or prohibit their parents from claiming them as dependents on their tax returns, according to the Student Public Interest Research Group’s New Voters Project.
In Virginia, registrars disseminated this type of deceptive information to Virginia Tech students last August, publishing flyers and posting information on their web sites, an apparent attempt to discourage out-of-state student voters.
Like New Hampshire, Virginia is widely considered by political strategists to be a swing state in the national election, and it has been said that the outcome of the election in these states could hinge on the votes of college students.
Any decrease in young voters would likely hurt Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, according to a Gallup poll released last week, which showed that 61 percent of registered voters 18 to 29 years old prefer Obama to Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. About 32 percent preferred the Republican ticket of McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Obama’s lead in New Hampshire jumped considerably last week. According to Real Clear Politics, which compared the results of six polls conducted last week, Obama’s average lead was 10.4 percent.
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Note: CNHT has in the past, turned boxes full of proof of fraudulent voting to the NH AG’s office and they still refuse to prosecute.