Deborah Walker: Contact Gov. Kelly Ayotte to protect voting in NH

To The Daily Sun,

Our democracy is based on equal access to voting in elections. It is important that obstacles are not put in place to deter citizens from voting. New Hampshire is currently the fourth most restrictive state for voting; we do not want to be first in this category in the future. The state Legislature has sent four bills to further restrict voting in NH to the governor for signature. These are SB 213 (no ballot if no passport or birth certificate or notary), SB 218 (no ballot if no passport or birth certificate), SB 287 (requires applicants for absentee ballots to present a copy of their photo identification with their application) and HB 613 (if a city, town, or school district believes the accessible voting system will not be used by a registered voter at an election, the clerk shall post a notice on the website and one other public location between 90 and 180 days prior to the election stating that the accessible voting system will not be available for use on Election Day unless a registered voter notifies the clerk of their intent to use the system in writing at least 60 days before the election). All of these bills limit NH citizens’ access to voting. NH does not have a problem with voting so these changes in voting laws are not needed. And they do damage to our democracy by limiting who can vote by putting financial and time barriers to voting. Call or write the governor to veto SB 213, SB 218, SB 287, and HB 613.

Deborah Walker

Meredith