I can see New Hampshire from my kitchen window. So I kind of keep an eye on how Vermont’s upside down doppelganger is doing living free and voting over there. The Valley News reports: Voting rights advocates are highlighting a new video which appears to show Republican Gov. Chris Sununu voicing his opposition to a bill opponents say will discourage some New Hampshire college students from voting.
Opponents of the bill, HB 372, say it’s an unfair attempt to target students, imposing the stricter requirements of residency in order to vote. If it’s passed, they say, students who attend college in New Hampshire but are from out of state would be required to obtain a driver’s license and register their vehicles here.
Referencing the bill in the video, made at a voting rights activists’ forum, Governor Sununu says: “No. I hate it. I know what you’re talking about. I’m not a fan. I’m hoping that the Legislature kills it.”
This is quite an about-face shift for the GOP Governor that has voiced opposition to motor-voter laws, and shortly after he was elected began advocating for tightening voter registration requirements. Sununu was perhaps the original source of a long running zombie lie about voting fraud in his state, one still used by Donald Trump in his tireless campaign to stamp out imaginary voter fraud. In 2016 then-candidate for governor Sununu told a right-wing radio host: “We have same day voter registration, and to be honest, when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they’re busing them [them!] in all over the place,”
New Hampshire voting rights activists are pleased with what Sununu said on that video but may want to hold their praise: Republican legislative leaders are confident of his support and dismissing his remarks. You see, explained a member of the state Senate: “He [Sununu] has a knack for speaking off the cuff,” [NH Senate Minority Leader Jeff ] Woodburn said, adding the governor sometimes tailors his message to specific audiences [added emphasis]. The take-home lesson could be that B.S. isn’t just delivered by fast talkers but in our neck of the woods can easily arrive off-the-cuff from a GOP governor.
And if you don’t believe as I do that New Hampshire is Vermont’s upside-down doppelganger Democratic Secretary of State Bill Gardener enthusiastically supports his state’s new vote-restricting legislation. Oh and Democrat Gardener — despite the fact according to the Concord Monitor, Gardener who previously debunked these bogus accusations of voter fraud is a member in good standing of Trump’s bogus Election Integrity Commission. It is a funny state, New Hampshire. By the way do you know they own the Connecticut River to the Vermont shoreline high watermark — I’ll keep a lookout so you don’t have to.