Episode 32767: Open Democracy Minute for January 17, 2022: Several Big Lie-Fueled bills before the NH Legislature

You're listening to the Open Democracy Minute, keeping Granite State government by and for the people.    It’s only January 17th, and already this year the majority in the NH House has passed gerrymandered House & Congressional maps, and introduced several bills based on fabricated accusations of voter fraud.    HB 1542 and SB 418 try to bypass New Hampshire’s Qualified Voter Affidavit, which allows registering voters who are missing a piece of documentation to vote and have it count.  The proposed provisional ballot system, used in other voter suppression states like Texas, could disenfranchise a voter unless they come back with the document that day. HB 1567 would allow citizens to bring lawsuits against their election officials if they perceive that the election official did something with which they don’t agree.   Several bills heard last week are attempting to stop the use of ballot counting machines, instead, demanding that all ballots be on paper, and that all ballots be counted by hand in even our largest cities.   NH election officials are understandably alarmed, because such a reckless move would make counting ballots take longer, be less accurate, and cost more money. Hearings on some of these Big Lie bills take place this week in NH House & Senate Election law. As Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO.”  For the Open Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.