The chair of the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee is calling out U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D) over what he calls “dangerous” falsehoods regarding the state’s voter registration requirements.

Last week, Goodlander and her fellow Granite State Democrat, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas voted against the SAVE Act, designed to prevent non-citizens from voting in federal elections. The bill, which passed the House 220-208, would require people to prove they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote.

“Democrat Maggie Goodlander just threw every ounce of common sense out the window and proved just how out of touch she is. Allowing illegal immigrants to decide our elections is a slap in the face to every single American and our democratic process,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole.

Goodlander defended her vote by claiming that requiring proof of citizenship would  “jeopardize the right of thousands of American citizens to vote.”

In particular, Goodlander claimed, married women who changed their last names when they married would be turned away from the polls.

“An estimated 335,050 New Hampshire women have a name that does not match their birth certificate, usually because they changed their name upon marriage,” Goodlander said in a statement. “These women would not be able to use their birth certificates to prove their citizenship under the SAVE Act. And, if they do not have a passport, which roughly 44.5 percent of Granite Staters do not, they would not be able to register to vote at all under the SAVE Act.”

State Sen. Timothy Lang (R-Sanbornton) sits on the Election Law committee, and he told NHJournal that Goodlander has gotten her facts wrong.

“The law already requires them to update their DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle) records,” Lang said. And he shared the citation:
263:9 Notice of Change of Licensee’s Name or Address. – Whenever any person who has been duly licensed to drive a motor vehicle within this state shall change his or her legal name or his or her permanent residence or his or her mailing address, he or she shall notify the director in writing of such change within 30 days.

Goodlander also repeated a claim by opponents of increased ballot security that, “In New Hampshire, nearly 100 eligible voters were turned away in recent town elections as a result of the Granite State’s new voter ID law, a preview of what could come from this bill.”

They were people doing same-day voter registration and, according to Secretary of State David Scanlan, a majority of those turned away returned with the proper paperwork.

Lang is a veteran of local town elections, and he said this is a non-issue.

“In my decade plus of being a town moderator, this hasn’t been an issue,” Lang said. “Maybe if she spent more time in the state, she’d know that New Hampshire local officials aren’t seeing this problem.”

But the part of Goodlander’s response that’s created the most pushback is a statement she included from Joan Dargie, president of the New Hampshire City and Town Clerks Association:

“New Hampshire recently enacted a bill that is very similar to the SAVE Act, and it has already disenfranchised voters in New Hampshire from voting in their town elections. We estimate between 10 and 50 percent of voters will be turned away from voting on election day,” Dargie said.

Nonsense, said Rep. Ross Berry (R-Weare), chair of the House Election Law Committee

“What an absolutely asinine statement that is actually dangerous,” Berry posted on social media.

“There is no way 50 percent of voters will be turned away on election day. That would require same-day registration to be over 400k people (which would mean more registered voters than people who live here), and none of them have their paperwork.”

Democrats across the U.S. have been making the claim about the SAVE Act disenfranchising married women over the name-change paperwork issue, and it’s sparked a backlash — from married women. They say the premise that women can’t handle providing the basic paperwork to register to vote is insulting.

“I’d really prefer that Rep. Goodlander stop insinuating that women are too stupid to figure out how to get these needed documents as adults,” said Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien. “It’s really offensive.”

Prudhomme-O’Brien, who also serves on the Election Law committee, shared her own experience with updating her ID.

“Nine years after I got married (and was given a marriage certificate that I can still find at a moment’s notice), I went to the Rockingham County Courthouse and legally added my husband’s last name to mine. I have never had any problems whatsoever obtaining the needed documents to prove my citizenship or who I was in order to buy a house, get a passport or a license or to vote,” Prudhomme-O’Brien said.

“Feminists of the 1970s and 80s -and my personal hero, Susan B. Anthony- pointed out that women were intelligent and capable of doing the same things men do. So, I took them seriously and acted that way.”

It’s not just insulting, says Berry. The attack on New Hampshire’s voting system by politically-motivated activists could be illegal.

“This statement by the NHCA doesn’t border on voter suppression; it is voter suppression. I will be filing a complaint with the New Hampshire Department of Justice,” Berry said. “And the next time the Clerks Association shows up to my committee, they should be ready to explain the statement.”