GST Chairman Ray Chadwick Testified in Support of Senate Bill 3 on Tuesday 3/7/17.
Chairman Chadwick and board Member Jim Adams appeared in support of Senate Bill 3 before the Senate Election Law and Internal Affairs Committee on Tuesday 3/07/2017. GST, SB3 Sponsor Senator Regina Birdsell and Secretary of State Bill Gardner were the only ones testifying in support out of about 20 persons testifying.
Senate Bill 3 would define an inhabitant’s domicile for voting purposes to be the principal or primary home or place of abode of a person, based on civic and community participation, where a person spends most nights of the year, the location from which to apply for a passport, the residence for income or other tax purposes, eligibility for a resident hunting and fishing license, and a New Hampshire driver’s license.
Chadwick testified that about 16,400 people voted with out-of-state drivers’ licenses in 2014.
GST sent a Right-to-Know request to the Attorney General office asking how many of those 16,400 people who registered actually got a NH drivers’ license after the 60-day period as required by law. Two years later no one in the State government has cared to check whether the 16,400 out of state registrants actually moved to New Hampshire or perhaps just dropped in for the day to vote and then went home.
The 2014 election for the US Senate was decided by 15,837 votes.
In 2016 about 6,000 voters registered with out-of-state drivers’ license and 1,423 voted with no ID.
So about 7,423 new voters registered to vote using identification from another state, or no identification at all.
The 2016 election for the US Senate was decided by 1,017 votes.
The Manchester Union Leader reported on the hearing and Chadwick’s comments as follows:
Ray Chadwick, of the Granite State Taxpayers, also spoke in support of the changes.
“We’ve heard much discussion about the question of whether voter fraud exists, and I would point out that we are in an environment in this state where anyone can show up on Election Day, register using an out-of-state license, and provide no proof at all, the consequence of which of course makes fraud impossible to find.”
Click here to link to the Union Leader article. Click here to download the Union Leader article.
“We are often told that no organized voter fraud exists here in New Hampshire. That’s because what most people consider fraudulent can be done legally under current law”, said Chadwick.
SB3 opponents asked about the Presidents assertion of “widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire.”
Chairman Chadwick counters:
“We live in a State that knowingly allows people from other states to vote in our elections, without checking their legitimacy, in quantities large enough to determine the winner of our elections.
Some might legitimately describe that as widespread fraud.”
GST urges passage of Senate Bill 3 to help keep New Hampshire elections for New Hampshire voters.