Laura Brill, CEO and founder of The Civics Center, writes that just 7% of New Hampshire 18 year olds are registered to vote. By contrast, in Oregon, Michigan and Colorado, over 70% are registered. New Hampshire has the lowest voting registration rate among young adults in the country. Living “free” should include better access to voting.
For years, New Hampshire has been one of the hardest states in which to register to vote. Exempt from the National Voter Registration Act, our state has no online registration, no DMV registration, no mail-in registration. New registrants have been required to vote in person at their local election office with both proof of residency and citizenship.
This is not easy for a high school senior to undertake. At Manchester Central High School in 2025, more students were turned away than actually registered to vote. Many New Hampshire college students are unable to register, even though they have documented proof of citizenship. They seem unable to access the documents because their parents maintain possession of their birth certificates and passports for safe keeping. Like the SAVE America Act proposed at the federal level, the ostensible purpose of these rules is to prevent voter fraud.
New Hampshire’s young adult voter suppression policies serve as a good example of why all of us should be concerned about the SAVE Act. If the SAVE Act passes Congress, married women who have changed their legal names bear an unnecessary burden in proving their identities by requiring more documentation. The bill also requires photo ID with visible expiration dates. Mail in voters would need to start submitting copies of their identification as well.
Trump wants to add even more provisions to the SAVE Act, including a ban on mail-in ballots. If the bill passes, these provisions would go into effect immediately, causing confusion and difficulty as states shift the rules in months leading up to the November midterm elections.
It seems obvious that our President is trying to coerce Congress into passing the SAVE America Act (i.e. his refusal to sign key housing legislation) in order to enhance voter suppression. He claims these proposals are “massively popular” with voters and represent the best of his policy positions.
I suspect Trump is desperate to make sure that those who now can’t put food on their tables, fill their gas tanks and are without healthcare will be unable to vote. In the absence of our democracy where voting is a right, not a privilege, many Americans as well as New Hampshire citizens will not “Live Free or Die.”
Oge Young is a retired OB-GYN. He practiced in Concord for more than 30 years, was the president of New Hampshire Medical Society and was a member of the general council representing New Hampshire obstetricians.