Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee and the North Carolina Democratic Party sued the North Carolina Board of Elections after a pair of Republican-backed election laws went into effect. According to The Hill, the plaintiffs claimed that the laws were “designed to undermine the right to vote in North Carolina.” The laws surrounded same-day voting changes that require voters who register on Election Day to produce additional documents for their ballot to count.
This week, the DNC announced that it is suing New Hampshire election officials over a law backed by Republicans that it claims will “disenfranchise voters and have a chilling effect on key members of the party’s base in 2024,” according to POLITICO.
The legal challenge reportedly surrounds a law that requires voters who register and vote on Election Day without a photo ID to send in missing documentation to the state within seven days. If they fail to do so, their vote doesn't count and they will be referred to the state Attorney General’s office.
According to the outlet, the Biden 2024 campaign is backing the lawsuit, as senior officials claim “they are concerned the legislation could affect critical voting blocs in the battleground state in the 2024 election, especially young people, college students and low-income voters.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that we should be making it easier, not harder, for every eligible American voter to participate in our democracy. New Hampshire’s law flies in the face of that belief, and is a chilling and unacceptable embrace of the election fraud hysteria championed by Donald Trump,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told the outlet.
“In an election that could very well determine the fate of our democracy, it is our imperative to fight for the right to vote. This is just the beginning,” Rodriguez added.
Democrats sue New Hampshire over GOP-backed election law https://t.co/6o13CKZsFt
— POLITICO (@politico) December 22, 2023
In an interview with NH Journal, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said: “Virtually every other state in the country has a form of provisional ballot for when a voter’s qualifications have not been established on Election Day. In New Hampshire, the provisional voter gets to actually cast a ballot, and then is given the opportunity submit the missing documentation after the fact.”
State Sen. Regina Birdsell, a Republican, told the outlet: “This is what the Democrats do; they sue, sue, sue until they get the outcome they want.”
“I never met anyone in New Hampshire who can’t prove who they are because they don’t have any identification,” state Sen. Darryl Abbas (R) added. “I’m 40 years old, and I can say with confidence that Joe Biden is the most anti-New Hampshire president in my lifetime.”