The New Hampshire state senate has voted in favor of sweeping voter restrictions that require all voters be state residents, disenfranchising thousands of college students who've made the state their new home. But it's worse than that.
All 14 Republicans voted to advance House Bill 372, which would tighten the state's voter registration requirements to require eligible voters to be legal "residents" of New Hampshire. Current law allows people with a "domicile" in the state to cast a ballot.
In order to declare residency, citizens would have to obtain a New Hampshire driver's license and register their cars in the state within 60 days of registering to vote. According to Slate, a driver's license costs $50 and car registration is even more expensive—leading Democrats and voting advocates to criticize the requirement as a modern-day poll tax.
You see, in 2016 Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in New Hampshire and on top of that, the state elected a Democratic woman to the U.S. Senate—Maggie Hassan. So there has to be voter fraud, right? How else are they going to stop Democrats from winning statewide offices. But wait, you might say, isn't that probably unconstitutional? Yes, it is. This very much amounts to a poll tax, and the 24th amendment prohibits those.
The bill has to go back to the House, because the Senate modified it. Gov. John Sununu (R) has said that he's opposed to the legislation—probably because he realizes the cost the state would incur in a legal fight if this were enacted—but he hasn't said whether he would veto it.