Posted on 05/11/2017 11:48:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race was decided by little more than 1,000 votes in November, while the spread between the top two presidential candidates was fewer than 3,000 votes.
While 458 potentially fraudulent votes aren’t enough to have changed the outcome of either race, the questionable votes prompted an investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and legislation to reform the state’s same-day voter registration.
“It’s not enough to change the result of the national level races, but it could impact state or local races that are often decided by just one vote,” New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan told The Daily Signal.
Though New Hampshire is a small state, its House of Representatives has 400 members—the largest state legislative body in the United States.
While President Donald Trump and some other Republicans have said voter fraud occurred in last year’s elections, it wasn’t a conservative outlet that turned up inconsistencies in New Hampshire.
A public records request by New Hampshire Public Radio determined that 5,903 New Hampshire voters registered on Election Day using an out-of-state ID under the state’s same-day voter registration law.
To register to vote with an out-of-state ID, a person must show documented evidence of living in New Hampshire. In lieu of that, voters may sign a legal document affirming their address, under penalty of prosecution if they lie. For confirmation, election officials send a letter to that address after the election.
The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office sent out a total of 6,033 letters to people who voted in New Hampshire without proof of a domicile in the state (including but not limited to same-day registrants), according to a follow-up report by NH1 News Network.
Of those, 458 letters came back as undeliverable. This is the evidence of potential voter fraud. New Hampshire has 984,920 registered voters.
In a phone interview with The Daily Signal, Scanlan said that after the letters came back as undeliverable, the office sent the matter to the state Attorney General’s Office for investigation as required by law.
“Just because these were undeliverable doesn’t mean they were illegal votes. We’re seeking further investigation to find out,” Scanlan said.
No update is available, New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Brian Buonamano told The Daily Signal, and the office continues to review the information.
Attorney General Joseph Foster and Secretary of State William Gardner both are Democrats.
The Republican-controlled state Senate passed a measure 14-9 on March 30 reforming the same-day voter registration system.
The legislation would require a same-day registrant to provide a document showing he or she lives or plans to live in New Hampshire for more than 30 days.
Documentation could include real estate contracts, leases, school enrollment forms, or utility service agreements. A false statement could lead to a fine of up to $5,000.
If passed, the bill would continue to allow people to vote without proof, but they would have to fill out an affidavit promising to provide proof within 10 days. This shifts some of the burden to the voter who lacked necessary ID, rather than local election officials who currently have to send the confirmation letter within 90 days of the election.
“The thrust of this bill does not change same-day voter registration,” state Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, vice chairman of the Election Law and Internal Affairs Committee, told The Daily Signal. “This is about making sure folks who vote here do live here.”
Under the legislation, the local election supervisor would seek to verify a voter’s address. The official would first use available public documents. If the official is unable to verify the voter’s location, the official will remove the name from the voter rolls and send the matter for review by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Republicans control the state’s House of Representatives, and Gov. Chris Sununu also is a Republican, so the political climate favors the legislation. However, the bill faces opposition from national groups.
Amy Busefink, a national voter registration director for Project Vote, an organization opposing voter ID laws, wrote that the bill “will make registering to vote more difficult for students and low-income people.”
Busefink said the bill “proposes steep penalties and issues the threat of criminal investigations that can deter or intimidate voters—especially those who may not have physical proof of domicile because they recently moved—from registering and voting.”
The legislation clearly is needed given what’s known about New Hampshire elections, argued Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an organization that advocates stronger voter integrity measures.
“Those votes were cast and still count. That 458 [questionable votes] only reflects the addresses that were undeliverable, it doesn’t reflect the potential fake names that might have been provided,” Churchwell told The Daily Signal. “There could be more who gave a good address and name, it just wasn’t theirs. How many voters might have come from Massachusetts? We don’t know.”
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>>>just pointing out that without Massachusetts our neighbor to the north would cease to be<<<
Sounds like New Hampshire is nothing more than a Northern County of MA, not a Sovereign State. That’s too bad for them.
The good news is that Mark Steyn lives in New Hampshire, so there is hope. #;^)
The only viable solution: National biometric election ID.
1. You register to vote not later than 3 months prior to any election. Those turning 18 before election day can register.
2. Biometric info is collected along with residence info. You must register in same county that you live in.
3. If you move before the election, tough: 3 months is the cutoff. You can still vote, but only for national races (or state races if you’re in the same state).
4. On voting day, biometric info verifies who you are. You get to vote once. You can vote anywhere you want, but you can’t vote your local races if you’re out of the region - only national races.
5. If you attempt to vote twice anywhere in the country, you are turned away at the door.
6. Wanna vote absentee (military, shut-ins, etc)? You must find a biometric workstation to do so. A lengthy secure scan code would be printed on your ballot that uniquely ID’s your bio info, which must match previous registration biometrics. Mail in that ballot. If you attempt to vote again later, you are turned away at the door.
The Rats don’t want to dig into this too deeply, or their big, shiny Voter Fraud Machine will be revealed.
It seems to have been trending that was for a while.IIRC it's the only state within hundreds of miles that's gaining population rather than losing.No state income tax or sales tax plus easy proximity to Boston are the main draws but it seems that people moving in tend to be from nearby states and bring their Rat Party voting habits with them.
I do not care if nationwide there is only one single fraudulent vote. It is bad enough that a 100% uninformed and/or misinformed voter can cancel my vote, but my blood boils at the thought of my vote being canceled by fraud, and I would be just as against it if it didn’t benefit dems 100% of the time
Maybe not THAT money, but there is ‘other’ money.......................
Bingo!
While I doubt that many NHers even know about this tremendous mob at the public trow, it might have a positive since would-be bribers would have to pay off more people.
The first draft had “arrested on the spot”, but I _can_ see the elderly getting confused about what they may or may not have done previously... even during the same day.
So I opted for the passive approach - don’t count the second vote - with the thought that it would stand a greater chance of coming to pass (up from 0.001% to 0.002%).
I’m sure a good Mass citizen like you also pays the optional higher state income tax rate. :)
I was absolutely stunned when the Republicans let that go without a fight. Think of how much easier things would be in the Senate with that extra seat. This makes me proud that i quit the Republican Party a few years ago - feckless worms that they are.
If you automatically assume everybody is corrupt then what’s the point of even trying? Guaranteed if you look for evil everywhere, that’s exactly where you will find it. I prefer to hold people accountable for what they actually do. Maybe more good people would get involved in running our country if they weren’t automatically going to be smeared and presumed corrupt by holier-than-thou types right out of the gate.
Just because the letters NOT SENT BACK as undeliverable..., does not mean that the other letters reached their addressees. I know I receive letters addressed to unknown persons throughout the year (with my address) and trash them unless they are hand-written or appear of some import!
LawNews
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a panel to investigate voter fraud, a commission he first talked about in early February.
“The president is committed to the thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections,” @SHSanders45 says.
The president named Vice President Mike Pence to lead the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, and named a bipartisan group of members that includes chief state election officials.
“The president is committed to the thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections and that’s exactly what this commission is tasked with doing,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing Thursday after Trump signed the order.
She later added:
The commission will review policies and practices that enhance or undermine the American people’s confidence in the integrity of federal elections and provide the president with a report that identifies system vulnerabilities that lead to improper registrations and voting. We expect the report will be complete by 2018. The experts and officials on this commission will follow the facts where they lead. Meetings and hearings will be open to the public for comments and input.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, will be the vice chairman under Pence. Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson will also be on the commission, as will New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democrat, and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a Democrat. The commission will also include former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, and U.S. Elections Assistance Commission member Christie McCormick.
Other members will be named at a later date.
*snip*
Trump’s executive order says:
The commission shall be solely advisory and shall submit a report to the President that identifies the following:
(a) those laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that enhance the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections;
(b) those laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that undermine the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections; and
(c) those vulnerabilities in voting systems and practices used for Federal elections that could lead to improper voter registrations and improper voting, including fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent voting.
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