Just before 7 p.m. at Canterbury Elementary School on Tuesday, voters fill out their ballots in the state primaries. (Will Steinfeld | For the New Hampshire Bulletin)
Gov. Chris Sununu has days to decide the fate of a bill that would require proof of voter identification with no exceptions in future New Hampshire elections, after the legislation arrived at his desk Monday. Opponents of the bill are attempting to persuade him to veto it.
House Bill 1569 , which passed the Legislature in May, would require voters to produce a photo ID on Election Day or be barred from voting. It would eliminate the current law that allows people who show up to vote without photo ID to sign an affidavit attesting to their identity under penalty of perjury.
And it would require that people voting in New Hampshire for the first time produce documentary evidence of their U.S. citizenship through a passport, birth certificate, or other document in order to register to vote.
The bill will not affect the Nov. 5 general election if Sununu signs it this week. It is written to take effect 60 days after his signature.
Sununu has been skeptical of signing the bill, stating that he is not interested in making further changes to state election laws when asked about HB 1569. But voting rights and disability rights groups are now urging Sununu to veto the bill entirely this week.
“This bill, if enacted, would likely lead to eligible voters with disabilities not registering, and therefore, not exercising their right to vote because of financial barriers and the difficulty of navigating the burdensome process to obtain certain documents,” the New Hampshire Disability Rights Center wrote in a letter to Sununu Monday.
The governor has until the end of the day Friday to make a decision under a five-day countdown established in the state constitution. He can either sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. If he takes no action, the bill automatically passes.
Senate President Jeb Bradley released the bill to Sununu on Monday, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Opponents of the bill say the timing of Bradley’s release of the legislation is significant.
Under the enrollment process for state legislation, the House speaker must sign off on all bills and then pass them to the Senate president, who is the last person to approve them before they head to the governor’s desk. That signoff process is meant to be a formality, but there are no exact time limits for how long the speaker and Senate president may hold legislation.
Bradley received the bill weeks ago but held onto it, even as his office released all other bills to the governor’s desk over the summer.
Sununu had raised concerns about the bill’s implementation, saying earlier this summer that he could not sign it if it would disrupt local voting protocols for the November general election.
Bradley released the bill to Sununu on Sept. 9, 57 days before the Nov. 5 election, ensuring that any signature of the bill will not affect that election.
Republican supporters of the bill have said it ensures straightforward measures are taken to verify people before they vote. They argue the current system allowing people to sign affidavits before registering or voting when they don’t have sufficient documentation is not stringent enough and could allow fraudulent voting to influence an election. And they say obtaining photo identification and proof of citizenship ahead of elections is not a difficult burden for voters.
Democrats and other opponents say the bill could disenfranchise voters even if they are U.S. citizens and live in the state, particularly those who have lost their birth records or were born in another state. The process for obtaining new birth certificates or passports can take weeks or months, opponents note, meaning that some people could be barred from voting even as they take the precautions necessary to get that documentation.
In a statement Monday, the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights reiterated its opposition to HB 1569, saying it would “make New Hampshire’s voter registration system one of the most restrictive in the country.”
“This bill would be a drastic overhaul of New Hampshire’s elections, leaving the door open for the state to lose our exemption to the National Voter Registration Act in addition to lawsuits and potential mass challenges of voters,” the organization said. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 required that all states allow voter registration at division of motor vehicle appointments; New Hampshire is exempt from that requirement because it guarantees same-day voter registration.
Despite voicing reservations, Sununu has never given a direct answer as to whether he will sign the bill.
Rep. Bob Lynn, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and a current Republican representative from Windham who authored HB 1569, says he hopes the governor does sign the bill. Lynn said he had a conversation with Sununu this summer in which he urged the governor to support it.
“I think that the overwhelming majority of people who do register to vote – even for the first time – they do provide all the documentation that is called by the bill,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
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