New Hampshire House Advances Provisional Ballot Bill

By HOLLY RAMER, Related Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Home accredited a decision Thursday in assist of the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential main earlier than advancing a invoice opponents mentioned would threaten it.

The nonbinding decision got here every week after the Democratic Nationwide Committee accredited a plan to revoke the assured first-place spots within the presidential nominating calendar lengthy held by the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire main. Noting that New Hampshire has withstood earlier challenges, Home lawmakers affirmed their dedication to the first custom and mentioned candidates are well-served by campaigning in a state with an engaged citizenry and “nicely run, free and honest elections.”

However a supporter of a invoice to create a provisional poll system later referred to as the present system “laughable” as a result of it permits folks to forged fraudulent ballots with nearly no penalties.

Underneath present regulation, voters who arrive on the polls with out the mandatory identification fill out out affidavits promising to supply documentation inside 10 days, and those that don’t may be investigated and charged with fraud. The votes themselves stay legitimate, however below a invoice despatched to the Home Finance Committee on Thursday, the state would create a brand new kind of “affidavit ballots” that will be thrown out if voters fail to comply with up.

Opponents referred to as it an costly and complex answer to an issue that doesn’t exist, and mentioned making a system that will delay the ultimate outcomes for greater than every week would threaten the state’s potential to carry the primary main. Rep. Russell Muirhead, D-Hanover, famous that the secretary of state has referred to as the state’s elections honest, free and reliable, and that Gov. Chris Sununu has referred to as them safe, correct and dependable.

“The correct factor to do is to comply with the instance of Gov. Sununu and our secretary of state and inform voters the reality,” he mentioned. “As an alternative, this invoice indulges misinformation in regards to the integrity of our elections.”

Rep. Ross Berry, R-Manchester, mentioned he doesn’t declare that there’s huge voter fraud within the state, however there’s a severe lack of religion within the present system.

“You must produce nothing. You signal an affidavit, it’s a chunk of paper, it means nothing,” mentioned Berry, a former director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. “Attempt to monitor that particular person down once they’ve given you a pretend title and a pretend deal with. It’s a laughable system.”

An earlier model of the invoice handed the Senate final month.

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