New Hampshire’s elections have not produced the will of its residents in a very long time. And that’s not a partisan statement. It is simply too easy for people who do not live here to vote in NH. And every now and then, the blind squirrel, stopped clock of justice, finds time to catch a nut.
Related: College Students in NH Admit They Have More Voting Rights Than True Granite Staters
How’s that for a mixed metaphor?
Having been at this for a while now, my sense is that these arrests – while legitimate acts against actual fraud (like nabbing the odd double voter) – are primarily for show. New Hampshire has a long history of ignoring voter fraud, regardless of which party controls the executive branch. It is as if there’s an unspoken agreement, and part of that is perp-walking someone every few years to make it look like this uniparty arrangement is on the job.
The latest stooge is alleged to have voted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire (off and on) as far back as 1996, both in-person and using vote-by-mail or absentee ballots.
Richard Rosen, 83, of Washington Street in Belmont, MA, and Route 175 in Holderness, NH, was arrested on a single felony count of wrongful voting, accused by investigators of voting in both states during the November 2016 general election.
Rosen came to the attention of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office by way of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a database that tracks possible multiple voter registrations in several states. New Hampshire joined the program in 2017.
Patch has all the lengthy investigative details, including Rosen’s accusation that someone else was voting in his name. It’s a great story. All the ways you can steal votes from Granite Staters make an appearance (except for out-of-state-student voting), so it’s a great story. And odds are Rosen will lose his right to vote in NH and get fined. That’s typically the extent of these things. But it’s not the biggest problem.
Related: NH Created a ‘Right’ for “Out-Of-State Students” It Can’t Give to Actual Residents
Election fraud is as old as elections, but New Hampshire perpetuates a two-class society of voters discriminating against actual residents. Under the guise of student voting rights, college kids are given more rights than actual Granite Staters. They can choose what state to vote in (their home state or ours). And as long as they only vote in one – typically ours because these are kids from Democrat states looking to impact the NH elections – we’ll never know who New Hampshire wants to represent them.
Richard Rosen is 83 years old. He’ll get off easy. They’ll probably strip his right to vote here, as I noted above, and how many elections is that? Not as many as he already voted illegally. And we’ll be expected to see this as a serious effort to address the issue of voter fraud.
