In the wake of the 2020 election, Republicans found their new favorite talking point: voter fraud. Claims of widespread non-citizen voting have repeatedly been proven false. Yet, they’ve invigorated GOP lawmakers in state legislatures across the country, giving them a mandate to pass restrictive voting laws in the name of “stop[ping] the steal.” This wave of voter suppression has swept through multiple states, leading to policies that disenfranchise certain voter groups to the benefit of the GOP. Now, it has arrived in New Hampshire.
On Sept. 17, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law HB 1569. The bill, which will not take effect until after the 2024 election, is set to make New Hampshire’s voting laws among the most restrictive in the nation — even though voting in the last general election occurred “virtually without demonstrated fraud,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Under current state law, would-be voters can sign a sworn statement at the polls simply by presenting an affidavit in order to cast their ballot. Voters can also provide identification ranging from driver’s licenses to student IDs, but HB 1569 removes these options. Instead, registrants will be required to provide physical proof of citizenship, such as their passport, birth certificate or naturalization documents. State Republicans who pushed the bill through the legislature have repeatedly claimed that these measures will prevent non-citizen voting, but we need to ask ourselves: Who’s the real target? In New Hampshire, I believe it’s us — college students.
I believe that any restrictive voter registration policy will have a more significant impact on college students than on most other voting demographics. College voters are a transient demographic. With a new class matriculating every year, many of the newest students may feel compelled to register in their new campus’s state. As a result, a restrictive registration policy is likely to place more pressure on students as a group.
However, the specific policies outlined in HB 1569 are about as targeted as you can get in limiting our demographic’s voting power. As new students head off to college, there’s a lot on their minds — choosing classes, joining clubs, finding new friends. It’s undoubtedly a busy and exciting moment in their lives. When I experienced this whirlwind, New Hampshire’s voter registration policies may well have been the last thing on my mind. That’s not to say I wasn’t excited to engage in civic opportunities on campus. I simply didn’t feel the need to concern myself with the specifics at that moment. I imagine most of my classmates felt the same.
If this law were in effect today, I and many others would have been punished for having the reasonable expectation that we wouldn’t need to immediately worry about our state’s voter registration laws. I didn’t think to bring any of my sensitive documents — the ones this new law requires for voter registration — and it’s unreasonable to expect that most students will. It’s equally unreasonable to expect that students will look into New Hampshire’s voter registration laws before even getting on campus to know which documents they need to bring with them. By the time we get to campus and realize that we need physical documentation to register, it might even be too late for many students to somehow get their physical documents up to school in time. On top of all this, the new law, despite not taking effect until after this coming election, will likely impact turnout this year. Some students will probably be confused about what documents they need in order to register.
Make no mistake, New Hampshire Republicans are aware of how this will affect us college students. In 2021, Sununu even discussed the state’s “voting problem” with a top Republican election lawyer, in reference to New Hampshire’s college students. State Republicans are targeting a vulnerable voting bloc that, in past elections, has or could have swayed outcomes.
State and local elections in New Hampshire tend to come down to the wire. In 2016, current Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan beat Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte by just 1,017 votes, meaning a single class of Dartmouth students alone could have made the difference. It’s also no secret that Dartmouth students are heavily Democratic-leaning: in a poll of Dartmouth students conducted shortly after Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, 80% of respondents said they were “most likely” to vote for Harris. I think it’s clear that state Republicans fear college students’ voting power.
To me, this attack on our right to vote is clearly political. Protecting our voting rights isn’t a matter of bolstering one party’s vote share — it’s a matter of ensuring that the final vote is reflective of New Hampshire’s eligible voters. No student’s vote, regardless of their political leanings, should be sacrificed for the sake of fighting false claims of fraud.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
