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Gardner Warns Lawmakers Against Changing N.H. Voting Laws

josh rogers /nhpr

 
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner is taking aim at two bills backed by Democrats to rollback laws passed by Republicans in recent years.

One would eliminate new steps in the voter registration process.

Another bill aims to make it easier for transient populations, like college students and members of the military, to vote here without running afoul of other state laws.

Gardner supported the bills that Democrats now hope to undo and told the Senate Election Law Committee that revisiting them, and privileging any group, will sow dangerous division.

"If we go down that path, that we are going to start fracturing off, saying this group their circumstances are such that they don't really need to do this. That's what got us to the 1960s."

Several college students testified in favor of the bills -- as did the League of Women's Voters and the ACLU.

The groups are involved in separate court case over the laws Democrat want to change.

 
  
  
 

Josh has worked at NHPR since 2000.
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