In less than a week, voters have a chance to elect Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh to the New Hampshire state Senate. And just last week, Granite State Republicans made it utterly clear why Tuesday’s special election is so important.
Behind closed doors, GOP Gov. Chris Sununu has just signed a heinous new law that will impose onerous new residency requirements on New Hampshire voters and legalize intimidation tactics to verify where voters live. The Republican-controlled House and Senate sent the measure to Sununu’s desk after passing it on party-line votes. This new law will require voters who register within 30 days of an election to show additional documentation to prove that they aren’t lying about where they live, and that they intend to live there long-term.
Voters who lack the required documentation will be able to cast provisional ballots that won’t be counted unless they submit that required, intent-to-stay documentation within a few days. If otherwise duly registered voters fail to submit that “proof,” the new law empowers state election officials to visit their homes and bring in the state secretary of state’s office for potential investigation.
So, in a nutshell, burdensome new documentation requirement + threat of state officials coming to your home or investigating you? Many reasonable and perfectly legal voters could find this … intimidating.
And as if voter intimidation via statue weren’t bad enough, the new law is based entirely on a thoroughly debunked and baseless conspiracy theory about illegal voters supposedly being bused in to New Hampshire for the 2016 election. The governor himself parroted these bogus arguments, and now he’s signed a law based on them.
At its core, this law is intended to make voting more difficult for Democratic-leaning demographics like college students and transient young adults. Laws like this one will make taking back the GOP-controlled legislature more difficult for Democrats next year. But laws like this also demonstrate why destroying Republicans’ stranglehold on the state is so crucial. With Republicans in charge, we’ll see more attempts to restrict voting rights, in addition to their ongoing work to defund Planned Parenthood and attack labor unions and working families.
Democrats have an opportunity to take a crucial step toward flipping the New Hampshire state Senate on Tuesday. Electing Kevin Cavanaugh will give Granite Staters a lawmaker with decades of experience fighting for working families and progressive values, and it will place Democrats just three seats away from taking a majority in the chamber. And thanks to the New Hampshire GOP, we have an acute reminder of why statehouse majorities are so important.
Contribute $3 to help elect Kevin Cavanaugh and break the Republican stranglehold on New Hampshire government.
