The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 19, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Former New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner famously quipped, “You can’t hack a pencil.” Perhaps, but that mindset has set the Granite State decades behind in its election technology. Now, there’s another proposal for a state “election information portal,” to finally offer online voter registration.
Voting Right Lab reports that New Hampshire is one of only seven states which does not allow its citizens to register online. HB 463 passed the NH House January 3rd in a close vote, 195-172, and will likely pass the Senate. Funding for the portal, SB 453, passed the Senate last week in a voice vote, and will be heard shortly in the House Finance committee.
New Hampshire’s portal would be more of a secure transit system. Citizens could securely send identity, residency, citizenship documents to the Secretary of State’s office via the portal, and town and city election officials would download and review the registrations. Existing voters would also be able to make registration changes or request an absentee ballot. Such a system would allow the elderly, disabled, shift workers and others to register outside of town hall hours, often limited in New Hampshire’s rural communities.
Studies of states using online voter registration, or OVR, found it was secure, lowered costs, lightened the burden for election workers, increased voter satisfaction, and reduced barriers to voting.
We have links to the bills and OVR data at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
New Hampshire Legislature – HB463 Election Information Portal
New Hampshire Legislature – SB 453 Funding for Statewide Voter Registration System
Voting Rights Lab – Online Voter Registration Tracker
NAACP Legal Defense Fund – Online Voter Registration: Good For States, Good For Voters
MIT Election Data & Science Lab – Voter Registration
Groups Taking Action:
Open Democracy Action, New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, League of Women Voters NH
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