Hanover — A letter circulated by the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office has set off a debate with town officials over its potential to mislead newly registered voters.

Hanover officials fear that the wording of the state notices will confuse voters, especially college students who come from another part of the country, and lead them to believe they must hold a Granite State driver’s license to vote.

Under New Hampshire’s constitution, people who live in the state but do not qualify as permanent residents may vote in elections as long as they meet other eligibility requirements.

Additionally, voters who complete an affidavit of domicile — a form attesting that they live in the place where they plan to vote — must also receive notice of motor vehicle registration requirements from the New Hampshire secretary of state.

The letter in question, which addresses a “Dear New Hampshire Voter,” reads: “Our records indicate that you have recently executed a domicile affidavit while registering to vote in the State of New Hampshire.

“Please be advised that any nonresident driver of a motor vehicle who holds a valid driver’s license in another jurisdiction, upon the establishment of a bona fide residency in this state, shall have a maximum of 60 days from the date his residency was established to obtain a driver’s license issued by the State of New Hampshire.”

The letter goes on to describe the difference between “domicile” and “residence” as they pertain to motor vehicles in New Hampshire law.

It does not mention that nonresidents, under certain conditions, are allowed to vote here, nor that it is possible to vote without having a New Hampshire driver’s license.

Betsy McClain, Hanover’s town clerk, said on Friday that two prospective voters — one a Dartmouth College student — had called her in confusion after receiving the state’s missive earlier this month.

“Why am I getting this letter?” she recalled the voters asking. “Why wasn’t I told I needed a New Hampshire driver’s license when I registered to vote?”

“And of course,” she said, “you don’t.”

To clarify things for new voters, McClain suggested some revisions to the letter to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan responded in an email that his office could not change the letter, which was sent out in accordance with state law and whose language was set by a recent judicial decision.

“The statutory language was challenged in court and upheld by the judge,” Scanlan said in the email. “We will not add any additional commentary unless instructed to do so in the statute.”

Scanlan was referring to a recent judicial decision, Guare v. New Hampshire, in which the New Hampshire Supreme Court struck down parts of a 2012 law that implied that would-be voters must meet the more difficult test of residency, not domicile, to cast their ballots.

Parsing the definitions of domicile and residence, and then determining how a driver’s license figures into that picture, is a difficult task, one that even McClain said she was not fully up to.

Establishing domicile in New Hampshire is the minimum requirement to vote, and involves living in-state for a certain amount of time each year.

Establishing residency is a little different: roughly speaking, it requires that a person demonstrate an intent to remain here for the indefinite future.

As for a New Hampshire driver’s license, “that’s not a requirement to vote,” Scanlan said in a telephone interview on Friday. “What’s required is you meet the constitutional requirements to be a voter” — that is, being a U.S. citizen of the proper age who holds domicile in New Hampshire.

The Secretary of State’s Office registration letter does not mention this, Scanlan said, “because it’s a complicated issue. You can’t make a blanket statement and know that it’ll apply to everybody.”

State Sen. David Pierce, a Lebanon Democrat who for years has fought voter restrictions, agreed that the law was complicated — but not that it was too complicated to explain to voters.

“It is, but it’s not,” said Pierce, who is an attorney. “Once all the legal wrangling is done, we already know the answer to this question.”

The 2015 Guare ruling forced the state to remove from its voter registration forms the words, “In declaring New Hampshire as my domicile, I am subject to the laws of the state of New Hampshire which apply to all residents, including laws requiring a driver to register a motor vehicle and apply for a New Hampshire driver’s license within 60 days of becoming a resident.”

Pierce said he had worked at the Hanover polls after the registration law passed and seen Dartmouth students read the registration language, turn around and leave.

He and McClain warned that the wording of the domicile affidavit letter could have a similar, but unseen, effect.

But in Friday’s interview, Scanlan appeared to disagree in principle with the court’s decision, which sparked controversy over its enfranchisement of college students and federal employees who may be transferred elsewhere. People living here temporarily, critics argued, do not have the same stake as permanent residents do.

“If you’re going to vote here,” Scanlan said, “you’re going to have to assume some of the responsibilities of a resident of the state of New Hampshire.”

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.