New Hampshire attorney John Formella is accusing national Democrats of violating the state’s voter suppression laws by discouraging voters from participating in the primary later this month.

Formella issued a cease and desist order on Monday in response to a letter from the DNC to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley late last week telling the state party to educate the public that the election is “meaningless.”

New Hampshire Democrats are asking voters to write in the name of President Joe Biden, who won’t appear on their ballots in the primary later this month.

“Telling the public or any person qualified to register to vote or vote in New Hampshire that the Jan. 23, 2024 New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary Election is ‘meaningless’ or soliciting the NHDP or any other party to make such statements, constitutes an attempt to prevent or deter another person for voting or registering to vote based on fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or on spurious grounds or information,” wrote Brendan O’Donnell, an assistant attorney general, in a letter to the DNC.

New Hampshire state law states that no one should deter another person from voting or registering to vote.

“Meaningless” was one of many words from the DNC’s letter dated Jan. 5 that belittled the Democratic Primary. By hosting a primary without national party approval, the state party’s actions can “disenfranchise and confuse voters,” according to Minyon Moore and James Roosevelt Jr, co-chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee.

This language must come to an immediate stop, Formella’s office said.

“Falsely telling New Hampshire voters that a New Hampshire election is ‘meaningless’ violates New Hampshire voter suppression laws,” wrote O’Donnell.

In their letter, the DNC also urged Democratic candidates not to participate.

Tension between the DNC and the New Hampshire Democratic Party has brewed for more than a year.

After the national party spoiled New Hampshire’s First-In-The-Nation-Primary tradition and issued a new calendar of 2024 elections that placed South Carolina first, state officials, citing state law, scheduled the primary for later this month, before other states – DNC sanctioned, or not.

With the election now nearly two weeks away, Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot on January 23. New Hampshire Democrats have launched a grassroots write-in campaign instead.
Democratic candidates Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips will both appear on the primary ballot.

In a debate hosted by New England College on Monday, Williamson and Phillips agreed that the DNC’s message was voter suppression.

“We should be doing everything possible so that every American of voting age has their voice expressed,” she said. “Any time, any way that there is a way of shutting people down, that is a danger to our democracy.”

Phillips said he hopes the letter is pu t on display at the National Archives.

“It’s one of the most egregious affronts to democracy I’ve ever seen in my entire lifetime as an American,” he said.