New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights Statement on Senate Election Law Committee Vote on House Bill 1569
For Immediate Release:
May 7, 2024
New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights Statement on Senate Election Law Committee Vote on House Bill 1569
Concord, N.H. — Today, the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee voted 3-2 to advance House Bill 1569 as amended, which would limit the use of sworn legal affidavits used by voters to attest to their eligibility to vote.
McKenzie St. Germain, Campaign Director for the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, released the following statement:
“We are incredibly disappointed to see the Senate Election Law committee advance this extreme legislation that would roll back voting access for eligible Granite Staters and could result in any voter being turned away from the polls if they did not have the correct documents,
New Hampshire’s elections are safe and secure, as confirmed by a broad bipartisan coalition including Secretary of State Scanlan, our local election officials, and Governor Sununu, who when asked about House Bill 1569 said ‘our system works very well.’ Despite our current system working, HB1569 would create a complicated and burdensome “hotline” process for election officials to use, a process that could drastically increase wait times for voter registration and still turn away eligible voters without documents.
The changes proposed in HB1569 could result in costly litigation, threaten New Hampshire’s exemption from the National Voter Registration Act, and potentially turn away thousands of voters. We look forward to the full Senate standing up for voters and New Hampshire’s election infrastructure by voting Inexpedient to Legislate on HB1569. “
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The New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights is a coalition of state and national advocacy organizations, voters, attorneys and watchdog organizations working to ensure and preserve the right to vote for every eligible Granite Stater, and is a project of America Votes New Hampshire.
