By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — One year after limiting marriage to those 18 years old and older, the House Thursday carved out an exception for the military.

The House approved House Bill 433 which would allow someone 17 years old to marry if one of the two people is in the military. The bill passed on a 193-178 vote and now goes to the Senate.

The House also killed several bills that would have expanded absentee voting and voted to allow students to more easily transfer to schools within the same school districts.

Longtime adult marriage advocate Rep. Cassandra Levesque, D-Barrington, said the bill allows adults to marry children. She noted that people just entering the military are restricted in where they live and who they can see and in what situation so a newly married couple would be separated for much of the early days of their marriage.

Someone that young may not be mentally or physically equipped to deal with some of the issues such as post traumatic stress syndrome, which is common, she noted.

“Why do we want to put someone in that role?” she asked.

Levesque said the military does ensure the family is taken care of if a soldier is killed.

No other state allowed exceptions once they raised the age of marriage to 18 years old, she said.

“This is a solution to a problem we don’t have yet as the law has only been in effect for three months, Levesque said, “and we do not have any active duty military bases in New Hampshire.”

But Rep. Margaret Drye, R-Plainfield, said you have to be a military spouse to get housing or accompany those stationed overseas.

She said in many other places the age of consent is 17 years old, and in New Hampshire the age of consent for sexual activity is 16 years old.

The bill would not change the law, Drye noted, but would allow those who put their lives on the line for their country to provide for their loved ones.

The bill passed on a 193-178 vote and goes to the Senate.

Voting 

The House decided not to let the people of the state decide if they wanted “no-excuse absentee voting” in future elections.

The House’s Republican majority voted 201-169 to kill CACR 5 which would have put the issue to voters in the next general election.

There are now a number of reasons for voting with an absentee ballot during an election, but many other states allow absentee voting without having to give a reason.

Rep. Connie Lane, D-Concord, said 37 other states allow no excuse absentee voting, meaning a vast majority of Americans can vote absentee without having to give a reason, such as being out of town or illness.

Opponents argued absentee voting is not secure enough, supporters said in states that have long had the provision, the instances of voter fraud are almost non-existent, and New Hampshire has used absentee ballots almost since the Civil War without any wide scale fraud.

“It is not the New Hampshire way to stand in line for two hours in the rain and snow to vote,” Lane said. “This CACR will do nothing to reduce transparency or security and the process will not change if this is adopted.”
“We should allow New Hampshire people to decide for themselves if they want to use absentee ballots, if they want the same freedom and access to voting the overwhelming majority of the country enjoys,” Lane said.

But Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien, R-Derry, argued that absentee voting is the most easy for fraud.

“No excuse (absentee voting) is a matter of convenience, not a matter of need,” she said. “Traditional voting day in New Hampshire is about all aspects of transparency and observable to every New Hampshire resident.”

The House killed bills that would have allowed someone to deliver an absentee ballot to election workers until polls close not the current 5 p.m. deadline, to begin processing absentee ballots before election day, to expand weather conditions that would allow for absentee voting, to require a candidate to attest to not spending more than $1,000 on a campaign, and to prohibit the dissemination of deepfake materials of political candidates prior to an election..

The House passed House Bill 288 which would limit absentee ballot requests to six months before an election except for military stationed overseas, and House Bill 474, which would require a second witness when votes are counted.

Schools

The House approved House Bill 68 which would allow students to transfer to another school within the school district.

The bill requires that to block a transfer, district administrators would have to explain their reason for preventing the move, or the transfer would happen automatically.

Opponents said the bill was poorly defined and did not take into consideration the costs that could impact the receiving schools.

The bill passed on a 217-156 vote and goes to the Senate.

House Bill 225 would add a responsibility to the parents into the educator’s code of ethics and code of conduct, although opponents said they are already included under the school community section of the codes.

They said the bill would allow the Department of Education to add an arbitrary and punitive obligation onto educators that is not necessarily in the best interest of the students.

But supporters said inclusion of parents is necessary to produce the best results for students.

The bill passed on a 209-164 vote and goes to the Senate.

And the House killed 329, that would require school boards to develop policies governing the air quality and air temperature in schools.

The vote was 210-162.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.