The November 2022 midterm elections are fading into history, but the problems with how New Hampshire carries them out have not. The law is not only unfair, but it also creates rights for out-of-state college kids that actual NH residents do not have.
I can’t vote in any state but New Hampshire but listen to the actual words of students who live out of state and chose to vote here.
Audrey Willette can decide in which state her vote will “have more impact.” Here or at home in Rochester, New York
I can’t do that, which means NH Law gives Audrey, a non-resident, more voting rights than I have.
Bernadette Farmer is a student that lives in Massachusetts, where voting in person or by mail is not a hardship, but because NH law is full of holes, she stole your vote by casting a ballot in New Hampshire.
A practice the editors at The Dartmouth encourage.
And not just at Dartmouth College. Thousands of votes are stolen across the state every election by students who live outside New Hampshire but have more voting rights than the residents who have to live with the consequences of those votes.
There was record midterm participation this year, thanks partly to record numbers of non-residents deciding where their vote might have the most impact and deciding that was here.
We’ve been beating this drum for over a decade, but this is criminal, and something needs to change. Out-of-state students have more voting rights than residents, which means they decide who represents us. Non-residents are tipping the balance of political power, which determines what laws get submitted and voted on, how much of our money the state spends, and the regulatory burden placed upon businesses and individuals.
When Democrats talk about protecting student voting rights, they mean the extra rights they have, which you are denied.
It has been a problem in NH for nearly 20 years, and it amazes me that we can’t fix it. Not one legislature has erased these extra rights. No court case or judge has managed to see how the law grants non-residents more rights than actual Granite Staters.
It’s aggravating, and I don’t expect it to change by 2024. No court challenge, no bill passed and signed.
But consider that a challenge. You can’t give me the right to vote in someone else’s state, but I bet you won’t have the stones to stop non-resident college kids from stealing our votes in New Hampshire. You won’t remove their extra rights and give us equal voting rights in our state.
But I encourage you to prove me wrong.
