Election advocates seek to join multi-state program
Feb. 20—CONCORD — New Hampshire should join all other New England states to become part of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) that seeks to maintain accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting, election reformers told a House committee Tuesday.
During a daylong hearing on more than a half dozen election bills, state Rep. Robert Lynn, R-Windham, proposed to further tighten the process by making voters show proof of identity in order to vote.
"If you want to vote, produce the documentation; if you don't produce the documentation, you don't vote," Lynn told the House Election Laws Committee about his bill (HB 1569).
A coalition of individuals came out against Lynn's bill, including America Votes and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire as well as a few dozen local election officials from across the state.
Currently, voters are required to prove identity, age, where they live and citizenship when they register to vote.
If they don't have those documents, they can sign an affidavit stating they are eligible, register at the polls and then vote.
In 2023, for the first time, if these newly-registered voters did not provide proof of identity within seven days of election day, their votes were deducted from the count.
In the 2020 election, more than 2,500 voters used these affidavits. There were 12 complaints of wrongful voting and five of those cases have already been closed.
"This bill would do nothing to improve our elections," said McKenzie St. Germain, executive director with the N.H. Campaign for Voting Rights that is affiliated with America Votes.
State Rep. Angela Brennan, D-Bow, said her bill (HB 1557) for the state to join ERIC would help boost voter confidence.
"We will show we are serious about our shared goals of improving election integrity" by joining ERIC, Brennan said.
Poll: Two-thirds confident about NH vote
Secretary of State David Scanlan said he's spoken with election officials with ERIC and he had not heard any complaints about how it worked.
Scanlan pointed out that joining the program means the state would have to share personal, private information with other states that it does not currently share.
"The program was made more politicized than it was when nine Republican states decided to leave the program" last year, Scanlan said.
Voting reform advocates charged those decisions to leave the program were fueled by a "baseless and dangerous conspiracy."
Some of those GOP election officials said the rules regarding ERIC were too restrictive.
Scanlan told the election laws panel that it's up to the Legislature to decide if New Hampshire should join ERIC.
"If the Legislature instructed us to do (it), we would make it happen," Scanlan said.
Later this year, the state will complete work on an upgraded voter registration database that should make it easier for local officials to maintain, Scanlan said.
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released Tuesday found two-thirds of voters here said they had faith that the vote they cast in the first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 23 was accurately counted.
In the poll, 23% said they thought voter fraud in the state was at least "somewhat" of a problem.
This percentage went up to 46% when likely voters were likely voters were asked if fraud was a problem in the U.S.
The same survey found 66% backed the state's law that requires New Hampshire hold the first primary.
Another 25% said they were neutral on this topic and about 9% said they opposed New Hampshire going first.
