Lawmakers in New Hampshire could pass a bill intended to tighten up requirements to register voters in the Granite State.
Senate Bill 3 (SB3) would modify the definition of domicile for voting purposes and “modifies requirements for documenting the domicile of a person registering to vote.”
The bill is going through the GOP-controlled state Legislature, and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is expected to sign it, The Concord Monitor reports.
ACORN spin-off Project Vote is particularly upset over the bill’s measure that would mandate that new voters for same day registration (SDR) prove they live in the state and that they intend to stay at their present address for more than 30 days by showing documentation.
“At the very least, the bill has the potential to cause to confusion at the polls on Election Day,” Project Vote spokeswoman Amy Busefink said in a statement.
“Further, SB 3 proposes steep penalties and issues the threat of criminal investigations that can deter or intimidate voters—especially those who may not have physical proof of domicile because they recently moved—from registering and voting. Voters who do not show proof of residence after the election would be automatically purged from the rolls,” she added.
Documents could be real estate contracts, leases, school enrollment forms, open-ended utility service agreements, etc.
If voters cannot provide domicile documentation on Election Day, they would need to return to the appropriate government office with the documents or mail the material.
Voters could be charged with voter fraud and subject to a visit by law enforcement and fined up to $5,000 if such documentation is not shown.
“We simply cannot have an open-borders approach to voting, regardless of whether we’re talking about state or international boundaries. This is how the organized left acts when it’s in the political wilderness. They ditch ideas and toy with weaknesses in our election system. The desperation must be palpable if they are willing to use a person that admitted to her part in an illegal voter registration scheme as their pitchwoman,” Logan Churchwell, Communications & Research Director for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, told The Daily Caller in a statement.
Currently, New Hampshire allows individuals to register and vote on the same day and show an out of state ID to register. In 2016, roughly 6,000 individuals registered and voted in November presenting non-NH IDs, the Daily Mail reported.
Almost half of those alleged cases involved licenses that came from Massachusetts.
It should be noted that former New Hampshire Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte lost to Democrat Maggie Hassan by 1,017 votes and Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 2,736 in 2016.