by Ed Naile
Essentially admitting Democrats would have trouble winning statewide elections without thousands of out-of-state college students, the NH ACLU has found two foolish Dartmouth students to be litigants in a suit to end the practice of NH voters having to choose NH as their lawful domicile.
How misplaced is the idea that a student in NH for educational purposes can also be a legal voter?
How about jury duty?
Are Democrats willing to amend our jury duty laws to allow non-citizens to serve on juries? That would mean Federal juries as well?
Can out-of-state students get a hunting or fishing license using their out-of-state driver’s license? Can you register a dog in NH if you are not a citizen?
No.
How about the states the out-of-state students or campaign workers come from? The legal domicile states of these illegal voters have election laws as well. Are we to supersede the laws of their home state so they can vote here?
Will NH allow out-of-state students and campaign workers to remain registered to vote in their state of legal domicile?
How long can out-of-state students and campaign workers stay on our checklists?
Can out-of-state students claim they intend to keep NH their “home” for decades after they vote here – like a voter in Dixville Notch did for two decades?
Why not?
Let’s get real.
If anything is a violation of anyone’s voting rights it is the attempt by the NH ACLU to violate the 14th Amendment rights of lawful, “qualified” is the exact term, NH citizens by letting non-citizens vote in NH. One law for unqualified voters, another law for qualified voters.
There are two simple ways for any student to vote in any National Election while in NH – legally and illegally:
1. Vote at home by absentee ballot.
2. Or, college students should fish or cut bait. They can act like grownups and make a simple effort to become NH citizens by establishing their domicile here. Of course, the State Colleges are still going to charge out-of-state tuition unless you are domiciled here for twelve consecutive months. Sorry, that is one law the NH ACLU is not “helping” out-of-state students with because they are using students for political purposes.
This out-of-state college student controversy has been going on since 1972 when a Federal Court stated quite simply:
“We are sensitive to the compelling need “to preserve the basic conception of a political community”. Dunn v. Blumstein, supra, 92 S. Ct. at 1004. But the challenged New Hampshire law forces persons who are in every meaningful sense members of New Hampshire political communities to vote in communities elsewhere which they have long departed and with whose affairs they are no longer concerned, if indeed the former community still recognizes the right.”
The case: Newburger v. Peterson. This case was also out of Dartmouth College and it challenged local election officials who would not let students, “persons who are in every meaningful sense members of New Hampshire political communities” vote because they were going to leave after graduation. That was an unwinnable position and NH lost that case.
If the NH ACLU thinks college students and campaign workers are, “persons who are in every meaningful sense members of New Hampshire political communities,” but who intend to maintain a valid driver’s license from another state, they must be trying to tie the new election laws up in court instead of winning the case.
I am sure any Federal judge would love to issue a ruling creating a 14th Amendment nightmare by interfering with 49 other state’s election laws just so NH Democrats can keep their thousands of out-of-state voters on our voter rolls.
And as a side note…
Most states have Motor Voter laws and these same students are registered to vote when they renew or get driver’s license at voting age. That means most of them are already registered to vote at home.
Most states with an income tax use the driver’s license number of their residents to keep track of who is a lawful resident of their state. That person’s legal address for jury duty, taxes, divorce, licensing, and identification, is on that license.
I hope the NH ACLU asks for expedited hearings to get this nonsensical case over-with before 2020, but I doubt they will.