Judge Joe Laplante … a DemocRAT (I cannot find you a link on this, but I clearly remember him marching around Ward 1 in Manchester in 2000 with a Kakavas sign) … recently issued an order refusing to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the New Hampshire DemocRATS against New Hampshire’s Voter-Residency law. The law simply brings New Hampshire into line with other States by treating the act of voting in New Hampshire as a declaration of residency in New Hampshire. The law fixed an anomaly in New Hampshire law that allowed certain nonresidents to vote in New Hampshire … primarily college students … yet remain residents of other States.
From LaPlante’s order:
But at least in the context of Rule 12(b)(6) review, with all inferences drawn in the plaintiffs’ favor, they have sufficiently alleged that HB 1264 was intended to burden the right to vote and that the practical effects of the statutory changes will in fact burden the right.
The “right to vote” is not what is at stake. There is no question that nonresident college students could either: (1) vote in their Home-States by absentee ballot or (2) vote in New Hampshire under the same terms as New Hampshire residents. Instead what is at stake is the “right to vote in New Hampshire and remain a resident of another State.”
There is no such right. It does not exist. It is an absurd concept.
DemocRAT LaPlante was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2007 … at a time when the GOP controlled the United States Senate … and State’s United States Senators were named Gregg and Sununu. But he was a favorite of a certain N.H. GOP Establishment attorney … and since when has the N.H. GOP Establishment cared about anything other than the N.H. GOP Establishment.
