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N.H.'s Battle Over Ballots: Senate Bill 3, Trump's Commission, and Claims of Fraud

It's not primary season, but voting is top of mind in New Hampshire these days.

With the passage of the controversial new voting law SB 3 and its first test in the courts and at the polls earlier this week, Granite State voters are split on whether or not the law is necessary, or simply a tactic to suppress students (and others) from casting ballots.

As that story continues to develop, Secretary of State Bill Gardner's participation on President Trump's election commission continues to generate controversy. That group met in New Hampshire this week amid protest from activists and pushback over new, unfounded claims of voter fraud in the state during the 2016 election.

On this episode of The Exchange, we take a look at the continuing debate over SB 3, dive into the data behind those unproven fraud claims, and invite listeners to weigh in with thoughts and questions about the integrity of New Hampshire's election process.

Listen to the show:

Guests:

Casey has been covering the debate over New Hampshire's voting laws since just after the election, when a newly-elected President Trump first claimed that buses of out-of-state voters were responsible for his loss to Hillary Clinton here. (You can read all her coverage here.)

Casey attended Tuesday's meeting of President Trump's election commission, and she live-tweeted what she saw there. (Follow Casey on Twitter here.)

Back in February, Casey compiled and reported on the very data commission chair Kris Kobach used to argue his case for voter fraud in the state in Breitbart, data which clearly shows that most voters who presented out-of-state IDs in 2016 were concentrated in college towns.

Read that story here, or scroll down to explore a map of that data.

  • Dante Scala:

Associate professor of political science and the University of Southern New Hampshire, and a fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy. 

  • Lauren Chooljian:

NHPR State of Democracy reporter who covered election day in Laconia, the first day of voting under SB3. Read her coverage of that election here

  • Huck Montgomery:

President of GraniteRoots Public Solutions, a campaign and government relations consulting firm in Concord. He most recently headed up the America Votes statehouse advocacy effort around SB3 and other voting rights bills. 

  • Rep. Barbara Griffin:

Republican from Goffstown, Chair of the House Election Law Committee

Map: New Voter Registrations Using Out-of-State & Mass. I.D. on Election Day 2016

Click on each town to see a breakdown of the numbers.

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