Lois Cote of Manchester is a retired child and family therapist.

Currently New Hampshire residents who are eligible to vote can register at the polls on any Election Day. If by chance they are missing any of the required identification documents, there are affidavits that can be signed, with follow-up procedural requirements, that allow them to vote that day. The affidavits are signed under penalty of perjury, and carry significant penalties for failure to comply.

An engaged citizenry exercising the right to vote is both the hallmark of our democracy and guarantor of its thriving and continuity. Yet HB 1569’s sponsor wants to make voting harder, impossible for anyone whose life circumstances might put them in a position of needing to use the affidavit. In the name of preventing fraudulent voting, there must be perfect attention and compliance in every person’s voter registration efforts, there are no reasonable exceptions in this world.

As a 77-year-old New Hampshire resident who has actively engaged as a political volunteer, whenever possible, since my early 20s, and who has witnessed zero evidence of or attempts at voter fraud, I strongly oppose House Bill 1569. By their very language, including penalties for violating these oaths, voter affidavits make clear the serious consequences of a voter signing these documents fraudulently; and in the very rare cases where it occurred, fraudulent voting behavior in New Hampshire has been pursued and prosecuted.

Especially since the 2022 Commission on Voter Confidence issued its report, we know that our elections have the highest level of integrity. We have solid safeguards in place already against the possibility of attempts at voter fraud.

In 2016 I witnessed directly the need for voter affidavits when helping a friend’s parents vote who were in their 80s. My friend had moved them here from Chicago in order to be able to support their needs, and within a year they had moved to an assisted living facility.

Having lived most of their adult lives in Chicago, they were unfamiliar with New Hampshire candidates, but were interested, and actively engaged in civic learning through various media resources and discussions. When it was time to register and to vote, the town clerk came to the facility. All went well until the father reported his birthplace in South America and the clerk asked for documentation of his naturalized citizen status.

Unfortunately, most of what they brought from Chicago was stored, and there was no quick way to locate papers or passports. After 60-plus years as a voting naturalized citizen who raised a family here, whose American-born wife was a social worker in a major Chicago children’s hospital, who himself had an advanced degree in economics and had served for years as a chief auditor for the state of California, this man was told he was not going to be able to vote.

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I frequently visited with this couple and was with them that day to help in the voting process if they needed it. I called their son-in-law who is an attorney. He communicated with the Secretary of State’s office and pursued other relevant avenues until his father-in-law was able to sign an affidavit attesting to his citizenship and to vote.

This is only one story, but it is definitely not an isolated one. Thirty-plus years ago I was in graduate school, working two jobs, and trying to help my widowed father in the early stages of his dementia. I moved in with him.

Only just in time did I remember to re-register in my new ward. Only because I’ve been a political volunteer since age 20, I firmly believe, did I think of it at all. Not many people are likely to have that as a memory aid, but a very large number of our fellow citizens have lives at least as busy as mine was then.

Let’s not be suspicious and judgmental by doing away with the voter registration affidavit. Instead, let’s be positive and affirming of each other, and continue to support in every way we can our democratic values, especially our right to vote.

Let’s not remove the affidavit without cause and deny eligible voters their rights. Please defend the rights of all those eligible to vote in New Hampshire. Please oppose HB 1569.