Town Clerk: GOP Voting Bill "Overwhelmingly Complicated And Confusing"

The uproar over Senate Bill 3 shows no signs of abating.

The bill's lead sponsor, Republican state senator Regina Birdsell, insists it simply ensures that each vote cast in New Hampshire is valid and that voters meet certain requirements. She says she removed elements that were especially objectionable to opponents, including involvement of local police in helping to confirm voters' addresses.

“We are looking to make sure that anyone who casts a ballot has a stake in the community that they say they’re domiciled in,” she said on The Exchange. Birdsell denied that college students or members of the military will be adversely affected.

Under current law, anyone whose domicile is in New Hampshire is allowed to vote here. A domicile is defined as “that one place where a person, more than any other place, has established a physical presence and manifests an intent to maintain a single continuous presence for domestic, social and civil purposes.”

Among other changes, SB3 would tighten that definition to include the intention to stay in New Hampshire beyond an election.

Read more: http://nhpr.org/post/town-clerk-gop-voting-bill-overwhelmingly-complicated-and-confusing