By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – A bill that would have election officials include in their voting return the number of people who attempted to register to vote but were turned away due to lack of verification of age, citizenship, domicile or identity was the subject of a bill Tuesday that was overwhelmingly supported by members of the public in online voting, but opposed by the Secretary of State.

Senate Bill 437 https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=1440&inflect=2 sponsored by state Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, was heard in the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee with many who testified saying it would be an improvement to existing law which has changed in recent years.

At the end of the hearing, it was announced that of the 170 who registered online related to the bill, 169 were in favor and one opposed.

If made law it would tabulate the number of people who attempted to register to vote but were denied.
It comes after the state changed the law, backed by Republicans, which used to allow people lacking the proper documentation of citizenship to register to vote and vote provisionally through a sworn affidavit.

It formerly required follow-up documentation within seven days with a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers or the ballot was subtracted from the final tally.

Now, the law requires that information on election day to register. Though saying it is not a whole or accurate statistic, the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights reported well over 200 were turned away during municipal elections last year.

Sarah Chouinard, program manager for that organization testified that the bill is a “common sense measure” and that it is “essential” that the public know how the changes in the law are impacting voters.

Devan Quinn, director of policy for the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, also spoke in support of the bill noting that it would be a great step to ensure those who change their names due to marriage are not disenfranchised, noting it is particularly complicated if one is married in another state. She said the law is a particularly onerous burden on women.

Bruce Borofsky of Madison said he had never testified on a bill and had only been to the State House once before but said it was important to support the bill as “voting rights are crucial.”

He said the numbers of people who want to vote and are eligible to do so far outweigh those who are fraudulently seeking to vote.

Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, chair of the committee asked what happens if a person comes twice to vote, is that counted twice?

“Is there a way to game the system to make that number higher,” he asked.

Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, asked how the bill would impact those who drive from one voting place to another to drive up those numbers to make it appear New Hampshire has a “giant problem with voter suppression.”

Bob Perry of Strafford said the bill is a good one but could be amended to include the names of those who were turned away.

Nashua City Clerk Dan Healey said he supported the bill and has been keeping an informal tally and will suggest other clerks do the same, but the bill would make it less anecdotal and supported the idea of an amendment with names and addresses included on the list.

Secretary of State David Scanlan said he was opposed “for a basic reason that we can’t lose sight of what the purpose of conducting an election is: It is to have an election where we receive the votes of the voters. We record the votes each candidate receives. We record the information of the number of the voters who participated, by party, numbers that are hard and true so that in the end we can determine who won an election based on the turnout and who came.

“This (bill) sets a precedent where we are now using the official record reported by election officials as a data collection tool,” he said. Scanlan said you could use that argument to collect data on every law that passes which may impact the election process.

“That is not a road we want to go down,” he said. He said additionally, trying to determine who got turned away from the polls “is a pretty abstract thing at this point.”

It does not include who came back and got to vote, he noted.

“It could be a person who simply left their license in the glove compartment their car. They can easily go out and get it. Someone who left their wallet at home? That is another story. In rare instances it could be that somebody just lost a really important document they no longer have and they need it to register to vote.”

He said his office has been working to address those issues to make the process of having documentation as easy as possible. Although New Hampshire allows for same day voter registration, Scanlan said he is encouraging people to register in advance of the election so that those issues are not facing a time crunch on election day.

“I don’t think it is right that we try and collect nebulous data on the actual forms where we are trying to determine who were the winners of the election,” he said.

There are other ways to collect that data, he said, and it could be useful, but it should not be part of the process that is called for in the bill.

In 2012 he said the state passed the Voter ID law that required documentation to check in to obtain a ballot and the Secretary of State’s office did informally track that data in a state election and it turned out that the concern at the time that they did not have the necessary data was exaggerated.

There were claims that 11 percent of the voters would not have the necessary documentation, it was found that was closer to 1 percent, when they did the informal poll, he said. Today, he said it is a fraction of that.

“I think with appropriate management, the steps we are taking, the additional steps that the legislature is taking, that this law is going to be implemented as smoothly as possible,” for the upcoming midterm elections. He said his office did not receive a single complaint from the municipal elections this year that there was a problem.

Another related election bill sponsored by Sen. Perkins Kwoka and heard by the committee, Senate Bill 438 would enable the Secretary of State’s office and the Department of Motor Vehicles to share Real ID information.
Scanlan said it is probably not necessary as there is a memorandum of agreement between agencies to do that. Still, testimony was overwhelmingly in support of the measure to be in law and online of the 135 who signed in on the measure it was supported by 133 and opposed by two.

The Secretary of State’s office has developed a pocket voter guide which is available online here https://www.sos.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt561/files/inline-documents/sonh/aug-2025-full-page-new-hampshire-voter-guide_0.pdf