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Stories tagged with “John Lynch”

NEWS FLASH

NH Legislature Overrides Voter ID Bill Veto | The Republican-controlled New Hampshire state legislature overrode Gov. John Lynch’s (D) veto of a law requiring people to present photo identification when voting. Supporters called the voter suppression effort necessary to “protect the integrity of voting,” though opponents noted that the Granite State has had no history of significant voter fraud.

NEWS FLASH

NH Governor Vetoes Voter Suppression Bill | Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) has vetoed SB 318, a bill to require voters show photo identification or “execute a qualified voter affidavit.” Lynch objected to provisions in the bill requiring that after August 2013, photo identifications issued by state, county and municipal governments, valid student identifications, and other photo identification determined by election officials to be legitimate would not be deemed valid photo identification — a system he called “far more restrictive than necessary.” It is unclear whether supporters will have the necessary votes to override Lynch’s veto.

NEWS FLASH

NH Republican Lawmaker: Push To Repeal Marriage Equality Will Create ‘Backlash Against Republicans’ | Republicans lawmakers in New Hampshire may soon vote on a measure to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law, but at least one GOP lawmaker is calling on his party to drop the issue. State Rep. Seth Cohn, who the New York Times describes as a “libertarian Republican” says the push “would in fact harm the Republicans’ chance of staying in power after 2012, whether or not it succeeds.” “They want this as an election issue,” he said of the Democrats. “I think it’s going to backlash against the Republicans who, in the face of the polls, are choosing not to believe the average person is O.K. with this situation.” Republicans have majorities in both chambers of the legislature, although if Cohn’s sentiment is any indication, they may not have the two-thirds majority necessary to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto of the measure.

Justice

New Hampshire Senate Flips, Upholds Veto Of Voter ID Law

By Travis Waldron on Sep 8, 2011 at 2:40 pm

New Hampshire Republicans were excited to pass a restrictive and disenfranchising voter identification law in 2011, so much so that they placed illegal signs outside polling locations demanding voters show ID in a May special election, even though the legislation hadn’t yet been signed into law. Senate Bill 129 never did become law, however, as Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed it immediately.

Wednesday, voter ID efforts hit another roadblock when legislative efforts to override Lynch’s veto failed in the state Senate. Both the Senate president and majority leader flipped their earlier votes and voted to uphold the veto, the New Hampshire Union-Leader reports:

The Senate voted 17-7 to sustain Lynch in his stance against Senate Bill 129. Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, and Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, were among those voting to sustain the veto.

Bragdon and Bradley both voted to pass the bill three months ago, when it passed 14-9 in the Senate.

Amid protests from minority groups, voting rights advocates, and a group of Democratic U.S. senators, voter ID laws have begun running into trouble across the country. The Justice Dept. recently put a hold on South Carolina’s law until attorneys for the state could prove it wasn’t a form of racial discrimination, while the Wisconsin version continues to come under fire for the various problems tied to its implementation, including a recent memo from a top government official telling Dept. of Motor Vehicle staff not to alert customers to the state’s free vote-only ID unless they asked for it.

In New Hampshire, however, Republicans have promised to keep up the fight. While some Senate Republicans voted to uphold the veto because they opposed provisions inserted by the state House of Representatives, multiple vowed to renew their push for a new voter ID law in next year’s legislative session.

Health

New Hampshire’s Democratic Governor Allows Two Anti-Health Reform Bills To Become Law

By Igor Volsky on Jul 14, 2011 at 2:43 pm

Via the AP: Democratic New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch “has allowed two Republican bills that set limits on implementing the federal health care law to become law without his signature”:

One bill says no New Hampshire resident can be required to obtain or be fined for failing to be covered by health insurance. An exception is made for people required by a court or the state who are named in a judicial or administrative proceeding.

The second bill establishes an oversight committee whose approval the insurance commissioner must obtain before implementing the federal law. The bill directs the commissioner to return a $666,000 federal grant to plan a health exchange to promote competition among insurers and request that the money be used to reduce the federal deficit.

The first bill is almost meaningless, since federal requirements — to purchase health insurance coverage beginning in 2014, in this case — trump state laws. Returning federal grant dollars earmarked for establish health care exchanges, however, would likely impede the state’s ability to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act and turn over the new marketplaces to the federal government.

Currently, 10 percent of New Hampshire residents are uninsured.

Climate Progress

Climate-Hawk Governors Veto Big Oil Agenda

By Brad Johnson on Jul 8, 2011 at 4:29 pm

Gov. John Lynch (D-NH)

Governors around the nation are fighting back against the Tea Party predations of the oil industry:

Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have pulled his state out of the regional carbon-reduction program. RGGI has been under non-stop attacks funded by the Koch brothers, and in making the veto, Lynch rejected the false claims made by opponents and recognized those benefits for the state.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) on Thursday said “the state is pulling out of the unified command team overseeing the cleanup of oil from a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline that leaked an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River late last Friday. Schweitzer accused ExxonMobil officials of not being transparent about the extent of the oil spill and the resulting cleanup effort.”

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) signed an executive order to create the Offshore Wind Economic Development Task Force, in conjunction with her veto of Senate Bill 709, which would have pushed the development of offshore oil and gas, as well as onshore gas fracking.

The nation desperately needs climate hawks like these fighting for a clean energy future, especially as hopes for a national mobilization on greenhouse pollution needed to stave off catastrophic climate change have dimmed.

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