voting

Palana Belken knows from firsthand experience that trying to navigate the voter registration process can sometimes be daunting if you identify as transgender.

A hearing to sort out voter registration rules for the upcoming midterms is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester.

With just over two weeks to go until voters head to the polls, a judge has blocked the state from using new voter registration regulations that require voters to prove they live where they're trying to vote. Instead, the judge says the state needs to switch back to the registration forms used in 2016.

About 15 people in Concord learned how to use voting technology for the visually impaired at FutureInSight, a local non-profit.

The system, called One4All, was first used in the 2016 state primary.

It's tablet-based. There's a keyboard and voice output that reads through the candidates. Voters hit "enter" on a keyboard to pick their candidate.

This year's system has a few small tweaks: the voice output is clearer and a bit faster, for one thing.

State officials are not challenging a federal judge's decision to strike down New Hampshire's "signature mismatch" procedures. Instead, they have instructed pollworkers not to compare a voter's handwriting on their absentee ballot with the handwriting used on their absentee ballot application.

New Hampshire is spending about $250,000 to improve cybersecurity for the midterm elections.

The money is part of a funding package that New Hampshire requested from the federal government in June for improving security and voter accessibility.  

Amid concerns about hacking from Russia, Iran and other countries, New Hampshire plans to spend a quarter of a million dollars in federal grant money on assessing whether its election systems are vulnerable to intruders.

All this week in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester, a judge will hear arguments over whether a controversial voting law known as Senate Bill 3 should be allowed to stay in place for this fall’s elections.

Here’s a refresher on what that law does and why this week’s hearing is important.

It’s a busy time to be a poll worker in the Granite State — there are new voting laws to learn, ballots to count and lots of workshops to attend before the state primary on Sept. 11. On Friday morning in Manchester, local election officials gathered to learn a new set of skills not found in the state’s Election Procedure Manual: How to respond to an active shooter.

Maine's Secretary of State says President Trump's now-disbanded voting integrity commission uncovered no evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud.

Democrat Matthew Dunlap on Friday released over a thousand documents he received from the Trump administration. He wrote to Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach that the documents show there was a "pre-ordained outcome" to the commission.

A group of students at Kennett High School held the school's second voter registration drive on Friday. Getting young people registered to vote is how this group, known as Eagles for Action, is keeping the political momentum going from the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting. 

Molly Robert is a senior at the high school, and on Friday morning she read the names of students and teachers who died at the school shooting last week in Santa Fe, Texas. 

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to review whether a lower court judge was wrong to force the state to share information from its voter registration database as part of the ongoing lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 3. State attorneys, unsatisfied with a district judge's order to share the database, requested the review earlier this month.

A controversial bill to restrict residency rules for voting is on its way to the state Supreme Court for a review. The Executive Council voted along party lines on Wednesday to approve Gov. Chris Sununu’s request to ask the court to look into House Bill 1264’s constitutionality.

Governor Chris Sununu wants the New Hampshire Supreme Court to review whether proposed voting residency bills are constitutional.

But Representative David Bates, a Republican from Windham who sponsored one of the bills, contends the court is unlikely to intervene. He says the court declined last session to review a different voting bill, citing pending litigation.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu says the New Hampshire Supreme Court should review two bills that would end New Hampshire's distinction between full-fledged residents and those who claim the state as their domicile for voting.

Current law allows college students and others who consider the state their domicile to vote without being subject to residency requirements, such as getting a New Hampshire driver's license or registering a vehicle.

New Hampshire won’t be offering online voter registration anytime soon. The House of Representatives killed a bill that would have required the Secretary of State to work with the Division of Motor Vehicles to set up such a system.

With its paper ballots and in-person registration requirements, New Hampshire's voting system is less digitally wired — and therefore somewhat less susceptible to cyberattacks — than many of its peers.

New Hampshire is one of about a dozen remaining states that doesn’t allow online voter registration — but a bill introduced this year could change that.

  New Hampshire's newest voter registration law is still tied up in court, but lawmakers are considering several additional proposals on the often controversial topic of voting.

Proponents of such measures argue they are trying to restore confidence in elections, while opponents say the goal is to prevent certain groups of people, such as college students, from voting.

A bill that redefines the state’s residency standards passed the Senate with Republican support —  despite opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu — and is heading back to the House for further review.

When the New Hampshire Senate returns to the State House Wednesday, it’s expected to take up a Republican bill held over from last session that could tighten voter eligibility requirements by changing the definition of residency.

Questions about who should be allowed to vote in New Hampshire - and how - are likely to be front and center again at the State House this year.

One bill would bring ranked-choice voting to New Hampshire — where people would rank candidates in order of preference, instead of voting for just one at a time.

Another Republican bill would mandate that poll workers provide information on New Hampshire drivers license laws to anyone registering with an out-of-state license.

NHPR News covered hundreds of stories in 2017. They ranged from the sublime (see Todd Bookman's story about an amateur synchronized swimming team in Hancock), to the tragic - such as Jack Rodolico's Heroin Diaries, in which a wife of an overdose victim discovers his videos chronicling his struggle.