Our Turn: S.1 and the negative impacts for NH
Published: 5/23/2021 9:30:13 AM
Every presidential election cycle, New Hampshire residents take pride in being the first in the country to hold primaries. And generally, as New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation.
As one Democratic political strategist argues, as state election laws became more democratized, primaries became more important, along with the “sequence in which [primaries] occurred.” As a result, New Hampshire became the place “where presidents were made.” (
Brookings, “Why is New Hampshire the first primary in the nation?”)
That was then, this is now.
Washington Democrats are pushing legislation that could take that privilege away from New Hampshire and implement a federal takeover of state elections. S.1 would override New Hampshire election laws by imposing heavy-handed, unworkable mandates and could make it impossible for the state to continue its hallowed “first in the nation” tradition.
May 20, 2021 - 9:09am
Republican state legislators, including dozens tied to the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), are pushing to loosen restrictions on poll watching, which has historically been aimed at preventing Black Americans from voting.
These poll watching initiatives are part of a broader movement to suppress voting in the wake of a presidential election and violent insurrection that didn t achieve what these lawmakers wanted.
The Republican Party s use of poll watching as an intimidation tactic has a particularly notorious history, and was essentially prohibited in 1982 when a federal judge brokered a consent decree between the Republican and Democratic national committees barring the GOP from engaging in ballot security and voter intimidation efforts without prior judicial approval. Before then, the RNC had hired armed, off-duty police officers to patrol majority-minority precincts wearing National Ballot Security Task Force armbands.
Back in March, liberal journalist Jane Mayer wrote a piece for
The New Yorker insisting Americans across the political spectrum – proven, she said, by leaked internal research by a conservative-leaning group were supportive of the federal election reform bill interestingly named the For The People Act (H.R. 1 in the House, S.B. 1 in the Senate), that stalled in Congress Wednesday due to lack of bipartisan support.
Mayer, however, never reached out to Jason Snead, Chairman of theHonest Elections Project, because if she had she would have been disabused of the notion that Americans are in favor of most of the bill’s provisions.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed into law numerous election rules changes that advocates say will make Florida elections more secure but which critics charge are really aimed at giving Republicans an edge in next year s midterm elections.
The governor, who is up for re-election in 2022, signed the measure live during a Fox News Channel interview from a West Palm Beach hotel after speaking at an event hosted by Club 45 USA, which is a former President Trump fan club.
When it came time to sign the bill, the governor held
up a placard with bullet points on the new law as he spoke.