Protect Absentee Voting

Action: Oppose the 3 bills listed below by Wednesday Evening

Look up your State Reps' contact info here.

• Tell your State Reps that you are a constituent who considers voting records at election time. 
• Your email subject line should include reference to being a constituent. Example: [Your Town] Constituent: Oppose SB72, SB218 & SB287 on Thursday.
• Short emails are more effective. State your request and just a few talking points, put into your own words, or a personal story. 

OPPOSE SB72-FN, establishing a parents’ bill of rights in education.

• If it looks familiar, SB72 was an action item 2 weeks ago but the vote on it was postponed to this week. Please consider reaching out to your State Reps again if you already did so in May.
• Report from Rep. Heather Raymond (D-Nashua) for the Minority of Children and Family Law: This bill as amended claims to protect the rights of parents in NH. While this is a laudable goal, the language of this amendment creates a number of insurmountable obstacles. In school settings, this bill creates a new requirement that school staff respond to “any and all” parental inquiries, regardless of their appropriateness, surveilling students’ romantic and personal relationships, and in effect undermining the Department of Education’s One Trusted Adult Program. It imposes penalties for teachers who would rather simply stick to focusing on teaching. It creates penalties for medical providers and requires written permission before doctors can treat children: Currently parents can provide verbal consent for routine services like prescription refills and telehealth appointments, this bill will end that practice. Further, the amended bill would strip the rights of teenagers to access birth control or receive pre- and postnatal care without written parental permission. In states like TX which now require parental permission for birth control, teen pregnancy rates have increased along with the rates of maternal and infant death. The bill makes no allowances for circumstances where the Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) is involved with a family and does not align with other existing federal and state laws governing medical care and medical records. It also creates a new burden of evidence before teachers and doctors can even call DCYF which is in conflict with other statutes and the laws in all other states. The public response to this bill was overwhelmingly negative; opposing testimony outnumbered support by a 10 to 1 margin. There are several unworkable constitutional issues where this bill is likely to be challenged and cost the state money defending lawsuits destined to be lost. The minority strongly opposes the current language and encourages Inexpedient to Legislate.
• Students learn and thrive at school when educators and parents work together, as a team, focused on the best interest of the student. However, this bill makes educators subordinate to parents rather than partners and there is no focus on what students need.
• This unnecessary parental rights bill pits parents and educators against each other, ignoring the mechanisms currently in place to ensure open lines of communication between school staff, students and families.
• The bill also puts children at risk by dangerously raising the reporting standard for neglect or abuse to “clear and convincing evidence.” Adults in New Hampshire are all mandatory reporters, including educators, and making reporting of suspicion of harm to a child not reportable, unless there is clear and convincing evidence, is wrong and puts children in danger.
• An amendment has been included that would require written parental notification for a minor to access birth control and other reproductive healthcare.
• SB72 is a bill that does not improve the learning environment for students and puts educators in a difficult situation when dealing with a variety of situations. Let's focus on the positive relationships that exist between parents, educators, and students.

OPPOSE SB218, relative to absentee ballot outer envelopes. 

• Rep. Connie Lane (D-Concord) for the Minority of Election Law: This bill, as amended by Amendment 2025-2407h, would compel registered New Hampshire voters who need to register before they can request an absentee ballot to prove they are US citizens in order to receive a ballot. The bill assumes that all voters have access to their citizenship documentation, can afford to obtain copies of such documentation, and have access to a copier and/or a computer. The bill’s sponsors and advocates offered no evidence in the public hearing that the bill would make voting more “secure.” For instance, no evidence was adduced to show that non-citizens are impersonating registered voters or are otherwise using absentee ballots. The minority is not surprised by the absence of any relevant evidence, as noncitizens face up to one year in federal prison for voting in federal elections – and also risk deportation. Given these penalties and the absence of any evidence for illegal voting by non-citizens, the minority believes that the bill will not realize any benefit to the public. Furthermore, the minority would prefer to wait until the resolution of the existing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of last year’s HB1569 (2024), which imposed citizenship requirements for voter registration.

OPPOSE SB287, requiring applicants for absentee ballots to present a copy of their photo identification with their application.

• Rep. Connie Lane (D-Concord) for the Minority of Election Law: This bill, as amended by Amendment 2025-2414h, requires that a voter present ID when obtaining an absentee ballot. The bill assumes that all voters have access to a copier or can get to the clerk’s office to obtain a ballot in person. It ignores the fact that copiers are a luxury for most households and that many people are home bound and cannot easily get to the clerk’s office. The bill’s sponsors and advocates offered no evidence that the bill would make voting more “secure.” No evidence of fraud under the current system was introduced. This bill, like many others passed over the past few years, is based purely on speculation and adds yet another barrier to exercising the right to vote – also known as voter suppression.
• From the League of Women Voters - NH: The League opposes this bill that makes absentee voting more difficult, especially for people who really need to vote absentee and may, for the same reasons, not have access to a copier or a notary public. Last November nearly 12% of votes cast were absentee. That’s voters of both parties. It is wrong to disenfranchise these voters with nitpicking made-up new qualifications that only some can expedite. We’ve testified many times against this concept. One more example of a solution in search of a problem.

You may watch House hearings live or recorded here.
You may watch Senate hearings live or recorded here. 

Info Sourced from Hillsborough County Democratic Committee