NYT: NH GOP looking to “create an opening for those who want to challenge election’s legitimacy."

In Case You Missed It, the New York Times ran a front page story on nationwide efforts by Republicans to create election uncertainty in upcoming elections that focused specifically on efforts by the NH GOP.

The NH GOP has spent years pushing greater voter restrictions to benefit themselves in statewide election. In 2017 the New Hampshire Supreme Court struck down a state law crafted by Republicans that implemented new requirements for same-day voter registration that critics say made it more difficult for college students to vote, a years-long fight that branded the state by some media outlets as a “battlefield for voting rights”.

Key Excerpts:

• In New Hampshire [...]Republicans have proposed to scrap the ballot-scanning machines that the state has used for decades in favor of hand-counting.

• That bill — introduced by Mark Alliegro, a Republican state representative who declined to comment about it — has drawn opposition from Democrats, who say that a lengthy delay between Election Day and the results would create an opening for those who want to challenge the election’s legitimacy.

• “Republicans are trying to sow distrust and discord in the process,” said Matt Wilhelm, a Democratic state representative. “If they’ve got an additional window of time of hours, days, weeks when Granite Staters don’t know the results of the election that they just participated in, that’s going to cast doubt on our democratic institutions.”

• A separate G.O.P. bill in New Hampshire introduced in the legislature’s prefiling portal contained a brief description: “Provide that only residents of the state may vote in elections.”

Republicans have long tried to tighten residency requirements in New Hampshire, whose small population means that the elimination of even relatively small numbers of college students from the voter rolls could help give the G.O.P. an edge in close elections. This year, the state’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected a 2017 state law requiring proof of residence to vote. Read the full article at The New York Times.