A marquee message recently displayed in my town of Loudon accused me of being anti-veteran, due to my support of SB418, an election integrity measure recently signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu. Criticism—fair and unfair—goes with the territory for elected officials. While one can’t respond to every slam, replies are occasionally required. This is such an occasion.
Such ad hominem attacks are de rigueur for many activists, who are generally not veterans. One suspects that their intent is less related to veteran advocacy and is more about taking gratuitous political swipes.
The knock on SB418 was that requiring affidavits for late voting registrants supposedly could disenfranchise forward-deployed servicepeople voting by mail, given legal timelines. As a veteran—and Vice-Chair of the House Veterans Committee—I sat in with the House Election Law Committee to hear testimony re: SB418.
I subsequently communicated with a father of two deployed servicemen, with the Election Law Chair, as well as the Secretary of State and I worked to protect veteran voting situations through other language in a different measure. Having earlier voted from afar and having been in harm’s way myself, the issue resonated with me. Ultimately, I was satisfied that no veteran would be disenfranchised. Indeed, the Governor would not sign SB418 until he received similar reassurances.
It bears mentioning that the sponsor of SB418, Senator Bob Giuda, is a veteran Marine Corps pilot—as opposed to so many non-veteran critics of his legislation. It also bears mentioning that this bill is a crucial measure that enhances election integrity in a state with the nation’s loosest voting requirements—where people routinely register on election days, vote, and then disappear.
To further personalize this, my 2014 State Rep race ended in a tie. I lost one vote (and the election) during the recount. We later discovered a number of same day registrants who were unaccounted for. Of course, we don’t know how they voted. But it is telling which folks say our current practices are just fine and which folks are genuinely concerned about election integrity and who support SB418.
Not surprisingly, whoever put up the marquee message in Loudon never contacted me, but if they want to communicate on any aspect of this or any other issue, my email address is michael.moffett@leg.state.nh.us.
State Rep. Mike Moffett of Loudon is a retired professor and former Marine Corps infantry officer.
