Voter suppression of college students
The U.S. Census Bureau counts college students as residents of their college town (on or off-campus) for the census, not their parents’ home. This means that college students count as “population” of New Hampshire. The state accepts federal aid based on population.
It is a shabby trick to use the population of college students to help secure federal aid while making it as hard as possible for them to vote. HB 323 is a bill that would make college and high school student IDs no longer acceptable as valid proof of identity for voting. The bill was passed in the House and Senate by Republicans who say this is to prevent voter fraud.
However, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State Dave Scanlan has said that voter fraud in the state is rare: “only a handful of instances in NH where we’ve actually prosecuted people for wrongful voting.” None of the bill’s sponsors could offer evidence of voter fraud associated with student IDs. Instead, the Chairmen of the House and Senate election law committees expressed concern about students printing student IDs “off of a card reader you can buy on eBay for 20 bucks” or making fake IDs “printed on cardstock.”
We fear that the reason to exclude college IDs in HB 323 legislation is that some in our legislature consider students as an automatic ‘D’ and not an ‘R’ when voting happens.
It is important that these students leave college with an understanding of the importance of voting, learn the issues facing both the state and the nation, cast an informed vote, and vote in the future.
By restricting the list of acceptable IDs to government-issued only, eligible voters—especially young people and those without a driver’s license or passport—will be turned away solely because they don’t have the “right” document, even when they can otherwise prove who they are and that they are eligible.
Please contact Kelly Ayotte and ask her to veto this bill. Her phone number (603) 271 2121 or email here at: GovernorAyotte@governor.nh.gov