by Sen. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, represents District 19.
Legislation comes in all shapes and sizes, including the bill introduced this session that would remove New Hampshire from the national voter Crosscheck program. The bill, SB 349, would repeal the state’s authority to share voter info or data with other states to ensure that each voter casts just one ballot in each election. Protecting voter data from misuse and ensuring the privacy of Granite Staters is essential, we know that this legislation was nothing more than a politicized solution in search of a problem.
The national Crosscheck program originated after the passage of the Help America Vote Act by the United States Congress in 2002. It was a collaborative effort of several secretaries of state across the country to make it easier to compare voter lists in a safe and private manner, to prevent inappropriately cast votes. In each election since many states use Crosscheck to verify that every legal voter receives only one vote as dictated by our Constitution.
The Crosscheck program is an invaluable way for New Hampshire to cross-reference data with other states that use it, including Massachusetts and Maine, to uphold the integrity of our elections. Even New Hampshire’s Secretary of State Bill Gardner does not support the idea of leaving Crosscheck.
Those who are critical of Crosscheck claim the security of personal voter information to be subpar, yet they neglect to mention that the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office double encrypts the information and requires special passwords that can only be accessed when Crosscheck calls the office to collect the information. If duplicate voters are found after the examination of the data, these cases are investigated by the New Hampshire secretary of state and then private information is destroyed to ensure it never leaves the secretary’s control.
Those in support of leaving Crosscheck would rather see New Hampshire join the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which the secretary of state could do without legislative directives, yet chooses not to. ERIC requires significantly more personal information to be collected from the voter, such as a Social Security number and would require a great deal of additional state funding for implementation and staff. ERIC is geared toward Motor Voter states, which doesn’t include New Hampshire.
It was rather odd for the Senate Democrats to be pushing ERIC, which requires additional voter data information points not currently collected with Crosscheck, while at the same time attempting to discredit the Crosscheck program, which requires far more limited personal information.
In a twist of irony, Democratic groups argue that New Hampshire is putting the private information of voters at risk by remaining in the Crosscheck program, but these same organizations recently filed a motion to gain full access to the voter database as part of the Senate Bill 3 lawsuit.
Looking a little deeper into this issue reveals that the New Hampshire Democratic Party is using the Democratic Perkins Coie law firm, as well as Marc Elias, who hired a foreign national to do opposition research on a Republican candidate for President. Perkins Coie is now trying to gain unlimited access to private information about New Hampshire voters. What could possibly go wrong with a partisan law firm in Washington D.C., having unrestricted access to our voter database?
Rather than continuing to push partisan legislation without regard for the consequences, Senate Democrats should come to the table in earnest and work on legislation we can all agree with that better protects the privacy of New Hampshire voters and the integrity of our elections in New Hampshire. Until then, I suppose we can chalk this bill up to just another half-baked idea proposed by Democrats this session, like taxing house paint and canoes, banning Russian vodka or raiding the state’s rainy-day fund.
Without subjecting our constituents to the whims of partisanship aimed at political gains, I plan to continue working hard for my constituents to protect the integrity of our elections in New Hampshire.
