Episode 32767: Open Democracy Minute for July 12, 2021: Celebration of the 26th Amendment in the shadow of proposed state laws trying to make youth voting more difficult

You're listening to the Open Democracy Minute, keeping Granite State government by and for the people. This past Saturday in Portsmouth, NH, Open Democracy hosted its annual Seacoast Walk & Rally, this year devoted to the 50th anniversary of the 26th amendment, giving 18-year-olds the franchise to vote and run for office. A momentus event to celebrate, for sure. But lurking in the shadows are a number of bills in the NH legislature, aimed at chipping away at this freedom to vote, particularly aimed at students. Ferocious testimony against those bills in March resulted in them being retained, but we are expecting them to resurface in August or September.  They include bills changing the definition of “NH domicile,” disallowing college students who spend most of their time in NH, from voting. Another bill ends same-day registration, targeted toward students and lower-income voters. One bill even tries to have absentee ballot voters have their application notarized at their expense, if the ballot will be sent to an address other than the voter registration address of record. That makes it more difficult for students, the elderly and the disabled if they are away from home or at a care facility.  All of these bills masquerade as so-called “election integrity” bills, but their true intent is to make it more difficult for certain voters to cast their ballots. The prospect that these discriminatory bills could pass in NH adds urgency to the passing of the S.1 For the People Act in the U.S. Senate, which NH Senators support, but so far have not signaled they are willing to stick their necks out for. As Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO.”  For the Open Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.