DNC sues New Hampshire over election law backed by Republicans

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is suing New Hampshire officials over an election law backed by Republicans that the committee claims will disenfranchise voters and affect the party’s members.

The lawsuit challenges a law passed last year that requires people who register and vote on election day without photo ID to send in missing documentation within seven days, or else their vote will be thrown out and they will be referred to the state attorney general. Politico first reported the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs said they are concerned the law could affect critical groups of voters like young people and working families. In an emailed statement to The Hill, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said Republicans like Gov. Chris Sununu are making it harder for people to vote.

“Democrats, led by President Biden and Vice President Harris, are continuing our fight to protect our democracy and every Americans’ right to vote, and New Hampshire’s law is yet another shameless attempt to undermine democracy and voting access by today’s extreme MAGA GOP,” Harrison and Buckley said in the statement. “With democracy on the line in the next election, Democrats in the Granite State and across the country will not rest until every American’s fundamental right to make their voice heard is protected.”

The lawsuit is backed by the Biden campaign. Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said in an emailed statement that it is imperative “to fight for the right to vote” and that this “is just the beginning.”

“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,” Chávez Rodríguez said. “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.”

Open Democracy, 603 Forward and a New Hampshire voter filed a lawsuit in June 2022 that challenged the law, arguing it goes against the state’s Constitution by making it “unduly burdening” to vote. The law requires those voters to vote on an affidavit ballot that is different than a traditional ballot, which is then separated from other votes, Democracy Docket noted.

The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit in Nov. 2023.

A senior Biden campaign aide, who was granted anonymity by Politico, said the team anticipated thousands of voters could be impacted by the new law.

In October, the DNC sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections after a pair of GOP-backed election laws went into effect when the state’s legislature voted to override the governor’s veto.

Similarly, the plaintiffs focus on same-day voting changes that require voters who register on Election Day to produce additional documentation that other voters are not required to produce.