Law enforcement agencies have a tough job that’s indispensable if done well and deplorable if done badly. I used to enforce all of OSHA’s worker-safety rules in a large swath of the U.S., and we often had to ask ourselves if we were being too tolerant of lawbreakers — and occasionally whether we were abusing our power and intimidating those trying, however imperfectly, to follow the law.
In our state, the Justice Department’s Election Law Unit (ELU) is out of control, and I want to thank four legislators — on behalf of myself and other abused voters of both parties — for trying to shine a light on some rogue behavior.
This week, four House members, two from each party, wrote to Attorney General John Formella about House Bill 1462 that the ELU insisted be killed this year, and they urged him to take a baby step toward serving the public properly. HB 1462 would have made it so that upon receiving a complaint that someone with homes in New Hampshire and another state (or with two homes in different New Hampshire towns) was “wrongfully voting,” the ELU would not be able to demand answers to irrelevant or illegal questions. The letter, in contrast, merely recommends that the least the AG can do is make voters aware of what actions or inactions they may be probed about and judged on.
It’s absolutely fundamental to a civilized rule of law that requirements need to be written down, not kept secret or changed every time a bureaucrat has a whim.
I appreciate the two legislators for speaking out: Russell Muirhead (D-Hanover) and Luz Bay (D-Dover). Authors Claudine Burnham and Kelley Potenza (both R-Strafford) are not seeking re-election, but they were the champions behind the original bill. Unfortunately, Election Law committee chair Ross Berry (R-Weare) was asked to sign the letter several times, and he refused. Berry is apparently very concerned about the non-problem of foreigners voting, but seems content with DOJ intimidating lawful New Hampshire voters. Readers will, I hope, support candidates who oppose both wrongful voting and harassment of legal voters.
The crux of the issue is that our state, to its credit, allows someone to own or rent two homes and to choose from which one he or she wishes to carry out the “domestic, social, and civil purposes relevant to participating in democratic self-government.” There is no mention anywhere about how many days per year one must live in one home versus another — the only absolute prohibition, naturally, is against voting in more than one jurisdiction at the same election. Any citizen can complain about anyone they believe is abusing the law, perhaps by (say) using a second home exclusively as a rental property but claiming it as a domicile. Of course, complainants could be sleuthing out a real violator, or just trying to disenfranchise someone on the other side of an issue from them, as happened to me because of my advocacy against the Casella landfill project in Dalton.
When the ELU accused me of wrongful voting in 2024, they cited among other things that I had told their investigator that: I see specialists at the University of Pennsylvania for a medical condition; my New Jersey “winter house” has more square footage than my cabin in Dalton; and I spoke at a public meeting in New Jersey about a CVS that wanted to locate on a residential street.
HB 1462 would have forbade ELU from asking intrusive and irrelevant questions like these. But DOJ witnesses testified at the bill’s hearing that it would “hinder our ability to prosecute by restricting our evidence and investigative tools” (they submitted no written testimony). The four legislators have now respectfully asked AG Formella to be honest: to tell voters that even after being approved locally, you might have to change doctors, buy a bigger house, or stop helping your neighbors in another jurisdiction. Mr. Formella may object even to this, but I can say as a former federal “good cop” that reputable enforcement agencies never balk at making their demands known to those who have to satisfy them.
Many in our state have a loud prejudice against “outsiders.” I worked here 40 years ago and always wanted to return. Those of us who chose New Hampshire to be where our hearts are should have the same rights as those lucky enough to have been born here.
Adam M. Finkel, Sc.D., of Dalton is an environmental scientist and medicine/law/policy professor. He was an appointee of President Bill Clinton to OSHA and EPA.