Republican lawmakers in Concord spent a lot of time and energy this spring pushing legislation to disenfranchise New Hampshire college students.
Earlier this month, Gov. Chris Sununu rewarded them by signing House Bill 1264 into law.
Let’s be clear on what just happened: Republicans have written a poll tax into New Hampshire state law, creating costly, onerous and totally unnecessary barriers for otherwise eligible voters to cast ballots in the place where they live.
Republicans didn’t do this because it’s good public policy, or because it addresses a pressing problem in the state. Gov. Sununu and the GOP Legislature did it for pure partisan political gain.
HB 1264 requires new costs and bureaucratic hurdles that only serve to disenfranchise students (and other newcomers) who live, learn and work in New Hampshire. They add another layer of hassle to a system that already goes beyond what’s required under state and federal laws. They do nothing but require students to spend money to exercise a fundamental right.
That’s no way to welcome young people to the Granite State. These are students who represent the next generation of teachers, nurses and small-business owners in your state. They reside in the state and live there the vast majority of the year. Their voice deserves to be heard.
It’s no coincidence that New Hampshire Republicans started pushing this legislation after their candidates for president and the U.S. Senate were beaten by very narrow margins on the 2016 ballot. This effort comes straight out of the GOP voter-suppression playbook: When the electorate isn’t buying their policies, they try to change the electorate rather than the policies.
It’s profoundly disappointing to see Gov. Sununu sign onto this strategy, especially after telling constituents that he “hated” the bill and could not support it unless it was drastically changed. It wasn’t changed, but he supported it. Gov. Sununu misled New Hampshire.
I started Let America Vote to create political consequences across the country for politicians who attack free and fair democracy. Working with our friends and partners in New Hampshire, we fought this bill tooth and nail for months. Republicans passed it anyway, giving new urgency to our effort to elect leaders who will govern in the voters’ best interests.
Let America Vote already has dozens of volunteers knocking on doors to support voting-rights champions and oppose vote suppressors across New Hampshire, and we’ll keep at it all the way through November. We’ll be targeting key legislative races in every corner of the state – and now we’ll focus on Gov. Sununu’s bid for re-election as well because he didn’t live up to his word.
The governor’s action leaves no doubt that New Hampshire in 2018 is on the front lines of the fight for voting rights in America. This bad bill follows the passage of Senate Bill 3 in 2017, which was designed to intimidate college students out of voting and is now being challenged in the courts.
Responding to the fact that I worked with New Hampshire students to try to defeat this bad bill, some far-right politicians suggested that I was promoting “unfettered election access in New Hampshire.”
Well, guilty as charged: If you’re an eligible voter living in New Hampshire, I don’t think politicians should put obstacles between you and the ballot box, period. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement.
We know that engaging young people in the electoral process early on increases the likelihood that they’ll remain engaged for the rest of their lives. That’s a good thing. That strengthens our democracy. That’s what I’m interested in.
Republicans like Gov. Sununu, it seems, are more interested in winning elections, no matter what the cost. That’s wrong, and we’re going to hold them accountable for it.
(Jason Kander is the president of Let America Vote and the former Missouri secretary of state. Let America Vote, a voting-rights nonprofit, maintains an office in Manchester and is supporting pro-democracy candidates across New Hampshire in 2018.)