It is a small and dirty secret–or has been in my experience–that, come presidential election time, undergraduates can find in themselves precious little compunction about voting multiple times. It isn’t, frankly, all that difficult to do right here in New Hampshire, and is made even easier with the prospect of double registration: here and in a student’s home state. It is sad to see that no one seems to be above feckless activism when the White House is at stake. But there it is–or was.
The New Hampshire legislature is now working on a bill that targets college students in order to reduce vote fraud. It would disable those living in hotel rooms, jails, and college dormitories from claiming domicile in the Granite State.
Conservative New Hampshire is dangling on the precipice of “swing-state” status, so Democrats are predictably against this effort at stopping non-resident transients from casting votes.
And so here is the laugh of the day. Sharon Nordgren, a Democratic representative from Dartmouth’s host town, Hanover, says, “Mostly [Republicans] are upset because they think stopping as many college students as they can from voting will help their ticket. The general theme is that Republicans are trying to intimidate immigrants, people who don’t speak English, college students and low income people and keep them from voting.”