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.