NH and 15 Other States With New Voter ID Laws in 2016

New Hampshire is one of 16 states with new voting restrictions in place for the first Presidential election cycle in 2016, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, accounting for 178 electoral votes.



New Hampshire voters will be asked to show government-issued ID when they cast a ballot. Those without the required ID can still cast a regular ballot by signing an affidavit, but they will have to let poll workers take their pictures, which is raising alarms among voting-rights activists.

“This is meant to intimidate people, there’s no question about that,” says Joan Flood Ashwell of the New Hampshire League of Women Voters. “It’s saying to voters, ‘We suspect you of being a criminal.’”

“It may seem to some like a mug shot,” says Devon Chaffee of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

It could also lead to longer lines at the polls. Wait times increased by 50 percent when the voter-ID law was partially implemented, without the camera requirement, during the 2012 election, the fifth-largest increase nationwide according to the Pew Research Center.

“Reports to voter protection hotlines and reports in newspapers after the election showed that at least 29 cities and towns experienced serious problems with lines,” found the New Hampshire League of Women Voters.

State Republicans pushed for voter ID after regaining a majority in the New Hampshire House in 2010, following Democratic control of the chamber for the first time since 1911. Although the state remains overwhelmingly white and historically Republican, the demographics are changing to benefit Democrats. “More than 30 percent of potential voters this year were either not old enough to vote in 2008, or resided somewhere other than New Hampshire,” according to the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. “The Democratic primary voter base has grown significantly, but the Republican primary base has not.”

That could explain why New Hampshire Republicans are making it harder to vote.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker