Every Friday, I get an email from the Governor’s office listing all the bills she has signed or vetoed. This week, one bill, HB1268, makes New Hampshire the freest state in America for homeschooling. It frees parents from a systemic contradiction. The education system monopoly that can’t teach kids to read or do math is no longer their overseer. It’s a big deal, and if Dems get back in the majority, they will undo that and just about every other tax cut and freedom Republicans have been able to squeeze past the otherwise combative Kelly Ayotte.
One of the necessary evils of moderate Republican governors. They are still better than any democrat.
Another small win that’s actually a big win is HB1306 “relative to the counting of absentee ballots.”
Absentee ballots shall be counted for the following:
(a) Total absentee ballots received by the clerk.
(b) Total number of absentee ballots mailed/delivered by the clerk.
(c) Total number of absentee ballots spoiled before the opening of the polls.
(d) Total number of absentee ballots emailed to UOCAVA voters.
(e) Total number of absentee ballots remaining before the opening of the polls.
Mail-in or absentee ballots are the easiest way to commit election fraud, so the legislature will now require towns to do the math. It’s not foolproof, but what is? Beginning in 2025, “voters” are required to provide ID to obtain an absentee or mail-in ballot, but they may also mail a photocopy of the ID to the town clerk. Room for abuse but less than previously, just like HB1306.
All of this relies on the people tasked with being watchdogs of the system’s integrity to do their job, without any obvious consequences. We love passing laws with no teeth, and if you’ve read these pages for any length of time, you’ll have seen your share of stories about incompetent clerks and moderators. Most are well-meaning, and some are out of their depth, but no excuse justifies damaging our trust in the process.
This IS Democracy. It defines local control. From absentee ballots to chain of custody to rules that make sense and consequences for failures, the system needs to spend less time protecting itself and those in it. HB1306 is a small step in the right direction, but we still have a lot more work to do.
Out-of-State college kids, for example, can still vote here, and the Democrat Party will allocate plenty of resources to show them how. We need to keep the majority and the governor’s office to keep the ball moving down the field. We did it with homeschooling. We did it with constitutional carry. We could be one session away from a bulletproof election integrity law that ensures the people who are chosen to represent you at every level of government are there because actual residents chose them.
Democrats will reverse all the advances because election integrity will cost them seats and power, and they’ll do it so fast your head won’t have time to spin.
