New Hampshire town elections offer a preview of citizenship voting rules being considered nationwide

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A voter in Milford, New Hampshire, missed out on approving the town’s $19 million operating budget, electing a cemetery trustee and buying a new dump truck. In Durham, an 18-year-old high school student did not get a say in who should serve on the school board or whether $125,000 should go toward replacing artificial turf on athletic fields.

Neither was able to participate in recent town elections in New Hampshire thanks to a new state law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Their experiences, recounted by town clerks, could prove instructive for the rest of the country as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act advances in Congress and more than a dozen states consider similar legislation.

“Everything that conservatives tried to downplay, New Hampshire told us exactly what would happen on a national scale under the SAVE Act,” said Greta Bedekovics, a former policy adviser for Senate Democrats who is now with the Center for American Progress.

Married women with changed names face extra hurdles

Voting rights groups are particularly concerned that married women who have changed their names will encounter trouble when trying to register because their birth certificates list their maiden names.

That is exactly what happened to Brooke Yonge, a 45-year-old hairstylist who showed up at her polling place in Derry last week determined to show her support for public education.

She was turned away initially because she did not have proof of citizenship. When she returned with her birth certificate, that still was not enough because the name on the document did not match the one on her driver’s license. Back home she went to fetch her marriage license to prove she had changed her name.

“Third trip around the sun and here we are,” said Yonge, who called the registration requirements reasonable despite the hassle. “If I did a little research, I probably would have known that is what I needed.”

New Hampshire is among the 20 states that allow voters to register on the day of an election. According to the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, at least 56 people who tried to register statewide the day of the March 11 town elections were turned away, though it is unknown how many of them later completed the process.

Derry's town clerk, Tina Guilford, wonders how it will go during a November general election, when turnout is much higher.

“It’s just heartbreaking to me to see people turn around and think, ‘I hope they come back,’” she said.

At least one person who tried to register in Milford on Tuesday did not return, said Joan Dargie, the town clerk. Neither did an older woman who tried to register at Town Hall before the election. The first of the woman’s three marriages was in Florida in the 1970s and that license was long gone, Dargie said.

“Sometimes people are like, ‘I didn’t save any paperwork for that. I wanted to forget all that,’” Dargie said. “It’s disenfranchising women.”

What's happening at the national level

The U.S. House passed legislation last year to require proof of citizenship for voter registration, but it stalled in the Senate amid Democratic opposition. With Republicans now in full control of Congress, the House is expected to take up the issue again soon.

Before the 2024 election, Donald Trump falsely claimed that noncitizens might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. In fact, research and reviews of state cases have shown voting by noncitizens to be rare and typically a mistake rather than an intentional effort to subvert an election.

Republicans argue that even small numbers of noncitizens voting undermines public confidence.

New Hampshire's new law also has had broad support. About 8 in 10 New Hampshire voters in the 2024 election favored requiring people in their state to show a passport, birth certificate or other evidence of U.S. citizenship when they register to vote, according to AP VoteCast, including about 6 in 10 who were strongly in favor. The vast majority of Trump voters were in support of the requirement, but so were more than half of voters for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the race against Republican Trump.

During the recent town hall elections, Michael Appleton had to return home to get his birth certificate and provide proof of a name change before he could register and vote. Even so, he wasn't critical of the new law.

“It’s inconvenient for me personally in this moment, but I don’t think it’s an unreasonable thing to ask,” he said.

Republican state Rep. Bob Lynn, who sponsored New Hampshire’s law, does not believe there is rampant voter fraud in the state. He also does not believe the new citizenship requirements are unduly burdensome.

“It seems to me that voting is pretty important, and it’s not unreasonable to say to people, look, you’re going to have to give a little bit of forethought to what you need in order to vote,” said Lynn, a former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Other states also are taking action

New Hampshire is one of eight states with laws that require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, and similar legislation is pending in 17 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The experience has at times been fraught in some states that have enacted a proof-of-citizenship requirement.

In Arizona, a recent state audit found that problems with the way data was handled had affected the tracking and verification of citizenship. It came after officials had identified some 200,000 voters who were thought to have provided citizenship, but had not.

A proof of citizenship requirement was in effect for three years in Kansas before it was overturned through legal challenges. The state’s own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during the time it was in effect were U.S. citizens who had been eligible to vote.

In Texas, where Republicans control both houses of the Legislature, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would in some ways expand on the proposed federal SAVE Act. It would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and compel state and local election officials to verify the citizenship status of everyone who is already registered.

If a person’s citizenship cannot be verified, that person would be notified and allowed to vote in only congressional elections.

Further changes possible in New Hampshire

Even as New Hampshire's law faces legal challenges, state lawmakers are considering further changes.

The state House gave preliminary approval last week to a bill that would create vouchers to cover the cost for indigent voters of obtaining a birth certificate, though opponents said asking voters to declare themselves poor would be demeaning. It also would instruct the secretary of state to make “reasonable efforts” to verify citizenship if someone is unable to provide documentation. Critics noted the office has access only to birth certificates issued in New Hampshire.

“If you're going to pass a bill, make sure that it can withstand litigation and make sure that it offers real solutions. This bill does neither,” Democratic Rep. Connie Lane said.

In Durham, where voting takes place in the town’s high school, students enrolled in civics classes traditionally watch the process. They got an extra lesson during the recent town hall elections. A student who was old enough to vote wanted to register but did not have the documents to prove citizenship, according to Rachel Deane, the town clerk.

“The supervisors of the voter checklist are wonderful in Durham, and they walked the student through the process and encouraged them to come back," she said.

Deane said she believes the student never did return.

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Casey reported from Derry, New Hampshire, and Cassidy from Atlanta. Associated Press Polling Director Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.