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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WTH? 400 legislators in a state that size? They should cut that to about 100.......................
Nothing to see here, move along.
“...5,903 New Hampshire voters registered on Election Day using an out-of-state ID...”
“...the spread between the top two presidential candidates was fewer than 3,000 votes.”
“It’s not enough to change the result of the national level races...”
Do these people do math?
Don’t they have Same Day Registration in New Hampshire?
They should stop early Voting (if they have it) and block all the roads from MA on Election Day.
It's been *very* well documented that,thanks to vague and inconsequential penalties for violating the law (a law which,allegedly,protects against fraud),thousands and thousands of students who aren't,in fact,allowed to vote in NH under that law...as well as busloads of street bums from neighboring Massachusetts...have voted there in the last few elections.
Just because the amount of Fraudulent votes didn’t change the outcome doesn’t mean that the next time it won’t!!!
NH has a population of about 1.3 million.
So there is one member of the state house for about every 3,200 people.
Do some rough calc on numbers of people who are voters, and estimated voter turnout, it’s possible that many of the house members are elected with fewer than 1,000 votes in an election.
In such small election districts you can see how 1 vote can make a difference there.
Everybody keeps ignoring the elephant in the living room.
Proof of citizenship! I don’t care when you register if you’re not a citizen you can’t vote.
And why is it no story like this ever mentions which party these fraudulent voters registered with? I know I had to pick one when I registered many moons ago.
I would think that type of info would be verrry pertinent to any investigation of voter fraud. It would narrow the search parameters by half at least.
Fools - and just because a letter was not returned does not mean the voter actually does live there and it was a legal vote either.
You run your state the way you want, and let us run ours the way we want.
Can't do that.Doing so would cause the parking lots of the several huge shopping malls right at the border to look abandoned.Just FYI...one of those malls,the Pheasant Lane Mall,is so close to the border that a good portion of its parking lot is in Massachusetts.
No sales tax is the draw,BTW.I've been known to go up there from time to time but,for the record,I *do* report all such purchases on my Massachusetts income tax return and pay the 6.25% tax on them,as required by state law.;-)
Double it to 800, I live in NH and that would be an improvement.
I believe they only make about $200 a year and only meet a few times a year -- not like the obscenely overpaid MA legislators who dummied it up to a "full-time" job. At $200 a year, they'd have to have a real job -- or a really generous trust fund!
Is there a Polling Place at the Pheasant Lane Mall?
Just askin’... LOL
Yes, we have a definite voter fraud issue here in NH due to lax voter ID requirements. A lot of us long time NH residents are pretty POed about it. With strict voter ID I doubt the ‘rats would have taken NH in any of the last few elections.
Nope...just pointing out that without Massachusetts our neighbor to the north would cease to be.
Of those, 458 letters came back as undeliverable.
Just because 458 came back doesn't mean that the other 5,500+ letters aren't sitting in a mailbox somewhere, gathering dust...or that the letters were collected by friends of those who voted illegally
6,000 votes could be the difference in a Senate Seat and Electoral votes for Trump.
That’s a lotta pigs at that trough....................
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