Advocates Tell NH House Committee to Repeal Voter ID

Advocates for overturning the state’s Voter ID law were out in force at a recent House Election Law Committee hearing at the Statehouse, calling the legislation unworkable and unneeded.

State Rep. Tim Horrigan, D-Durham, filed HB 287 to repeal the state’s Voter ID law, saying it was “rammed through” in the last session. He said provisions that were added to the law to make it more appealing made “bad legislation even worse” and called on repealing the entire thing.

If approved, the state would save about $465,000, Horrigan estimated, and would also still keep voter impersonation as a crime. He stated that there had only been one case of voter impersonation fraud when a young man who claimed to be his father voted in 2004. Horrigan pointed to James O’Keefe vote fraud attempt incident in Nashua during the presidential primary as a “gadfly who brought some people around asking for ballots,” adding that O'Keefe's activity was a non-issue. He also stated that voter impersonation fraud was “a pretty risky way to steal an election … extremely risky, if you’re dumb enough to try it,” while adding that tampering with the actual vote count or gerrymandering the districts were less risky ways of determining and changing election outcomes.

“Voting is a basic right,” Horrigan said. “You shouldn’t have to have an ID to vote.”

State Rep. Laurie Sanborn, R-Bedford, a member of the minority leadership team, spoke against the repeal bill, noting that more than 30 other states require some form of identification to vote. She said “vote fraud has been documented” and there is “very real concern” that fraud can easily be perpetuated and the law sought to fix potential problems. Sanborn added that a recent Washington Post poll showed that 75 percent of respondents support showing an ID to vote and nearly every other important thing done in a person’s life requires an ID.

“It’s a good, commonsense measure which has yet to be fully implemented,” Sanborn stated.

Also speaking against the repeal was Harriet E. Cady, a former state representative from Deerfield who is also the Supervisor of the Checklist in that community. She said she supported Voter ID legislation due to previous problems with voters and registration.

In one instance, in 2000, 22 people registered at a local campground to vote and did vote, she alleged. A year later, the rolls were purged and letters were sent to verify that those people lived in the community. The letters to the 22 people came back as nonexistent residents, she said. Cady said all the names were given to the state attorney general's office for prosecution but they couldn’t track the people down and nothing came of the matter.

“They stole votes in my town and that doesn’t make me happy,” she said.

In another incident, an ex-husband of a resident tried to register at the home of his ex-wife, in order to vote in a contested state, she noted. 

Joan Ashwell, though, of the New Hampshire League of Women Voters, in speaking in support of the repeal, said there were few voting problems and “the government shouldn’t be taking away people’s rights.” She said, in response to Cady’s remarks, that the “convenience of election workers was not justification” for keeping the law in place. Ashwell added that studies have shown that New Hampshire has one of the best, most successful laws on the books for voting without the ID law.

“Our laws make it possible for every citizen to report voter fraud,” she added, including a voter challenge law that was a model for other states.

Also speaking in support of the repeal legislation were Devon Chaffe, the new executive director of the NH Civil Liberties Union, Josiette White of America Votes, Ryan Donnelly of Granite State Independent Living, Ron Geoffroy, the senior executive vice president for The Alliance for Retired Americans, Caitlin Rollo, the political & research director for Granite State Progress, and Kary Jencks of NH Citizens Alliance for Action, who presented 145 pages of petition signatures to the committee from around the state supporting repealing Voter ID. 

There is a subcommittee work session on Horrigan's bill scheduled for Feb. 19, 10 a.m., in Room 308 of the Legislative Office Building.