NH House bill aims to boost young voter registration
CONCORD — New Hampshire lawmakers recently heard testimony on a bipartisan bill intended to improve civics education by helping high school students register to vote.
The bill, HB 1014, would require high schools to develop programs to assist students in the voter registration process.
State Rep. Mark Paige, D-Exeter, introduced the measure after hearing from constituents who commented on the close relationship between civic engagement and voting. Voter registration efforts, he said, vary across state high schools.
Non-partisan groups testified in support of the bill.
Olivia Zink of Open Democracy noted that only 15.6% of eligible 18year-olds register to vote in New Hampshire. Given this gap, “it is vital that we push through measures to inform our new voters so that they are able to have their voices heard,” she said.
Janet Ward, representing the League of Women Voters, said the bill “concretizes the words of Doris Haddock (or “Granny D” as she was widely known) that ‘Democracy is not something we have, but something we do.'”
Ward added the bill is “a way of protecting the bedrock of our democracy, our right to vote.”
Paige believes the bill's goal to improve participation among young people bolsters existing aims of state civic education and government requirements passed in the last legislative session.
“A goal of our civics curriculum is to ensure students leave our schools and enter the world prepared to be engaged citizens as participants in the electoral process, and this bill helps make good on that promise,” said Paige. “Young people want to be engaged, hold elective officials accountable, and determine their future; if we can better position schools to help them do that with measures like this, we should not hesitate.”
Kathryn Langill, 20, of Concord, supports the bill, noting some of the obstacles young people face in registering.
“Young voters are historically underrepresented in elections, often due to a lack of knowledge surrounding the process of registering to vote,” she said.
The bill does not require that students register. It allows schools flexibility to take different approaches to the issue.
In addition to those testifying in favor of the bill at the hearing, 347 people submitted online testimony or registered their support for the measure, and only seven opposed it. The Education Committee must act on the bill before the bill can move to the full House for a vote.