CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The state supreme court ruled Wednesday that a person who has a New Hampshire home is considered a resident when it comes to elections, answering questions posed by a federal judge who is presiding over a challenge to a state law.
The law, which took effect last July, requires voters to be full-fledged residents of New Hampshire and ended state law distinctions between “residency” and “domicile.”
Before the law took effect, New Hampshire was the only state that didn’t require residency to vote. Though it doesn’t change the process of registering to vote, the law effectively makes out-of-state college students who vote in New Hampshire subject to residency requirements, such as obtaining drivers’ licenses and registering cars.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire sued the secretary of state and attorney general over the law on behalf of two Dartmouth College students. They wanted to vote in New Hampshire while attending college, but didn’t intend to remain in the state after graduation. Both have driver’s licenses from other states, but they don’t own cars. They registered to vote in New Hampshire in 2018.
The ACLU said the law created confusion and burdened the students’ right to vote. The state said any confusion is “self-created and sustained.”
In November, U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante ruled against the ACLU’s request to block the law from being enforced in time for the first-in-the-national presidential primary in February. But, he also had questions on how the law could interact with the state’s motor vehicle code and election rules. He submitted five questions to the state supreme court for review.
The court, which heard arguments on the matter in January, answered four of the questions that supported conclusions reached by the state. One question asked whether college students who reside in New Hampshire for more than six months in a year are required to get New Hampshire drivers’ licenses if they want to drive in the state and are required to register their vehicles they keep there.
The court wrote that nonresident college students who wish to drive in the state, reside there for more than six months in any year and whose vehicles “are principally used in connection with the New Hampshire abode” must register them in New Hampshire and get a New Hampshire driver’s license.
The case now goes back to LaPlante.
Democrats, including many of the presidential candidates who campaigned in New Hampshire, said the new law amounts to voter suppression by essentially imposing a “poll tax” in the form of license and vehicle registration fees. But Republicans and other supporters of the law said it was in line with residency requirements in other states, including many of the critics’ home states.
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