Voting

You may register to vote if:

• You are a United States citizen
• You are 18 years of age
• You may register at age 17 if you will be 18 years old by the day of the next election
• You are domiciled in the community in which you are seeking to register Your domicile is the place where you live, or the place you call home.

• At your city/town clerk’s office at least 10 days before the election.
• At the polls on election day.
• By mail. If you have a physical disability that prevents you from  registering in person, ask your city/town clerk for an absentee voter registration. Make sure it gets returned to the clerk’s office at least 10 days before the election.

Citizenship: Any one of the following:

• Birth certificate,
• Passport,
• Naturalization papers,
• Citizenship affidavit, OR
• Any other reasonable documentation which indicates you are a U.S. citizen

Age: Any reasonable documentation showing you are 18 years of age or older.

Domicile:  NH’s law regarding domicile recently changed.  The NH Secretary of State’s Office has the most up-to-date information.

• If you are registering to vote more than 30 days before an election, you must submit documentation that proves you have domicile at the address on your registration form.
• Any of the following documents is presumptive evidence that you meet the domicile requirement, provided the document is: currently valid, was issued to you or in your name, and shows the address you claim as a domicile.
  1. New Hampshire driver’s license
  2. New Hampshire vehicle registration
  3. Armed services identification
  4. A photo identification issued by the U.S. government
• If you are registering to vote within 30 days of the election-including on the day of the election and you do not have any domicile documents, you can still register to vote.  However, you must either:
  • Promise to submit documentation proving domicile to the town clerk’s office within ten days (or thirty days if the clerk’s office is open for less than twenty hours per week). OR,
  • Sign an agreement that will authorize the clerk’s office to send two municipal officers or their agents to the address that you provided on the form in order to verify that you have domicile at that address.

Town and city clerks are required to accept your application, however, only the supervisors can make the final decision. Your application shall be accepted, unless it is established that it is more likely than not that you are not qualified to vote. (RSA 654:11)

You may register to vote with the supervisors of the checklist (at your polling place) during any election, as long as you meet all of the qualifications, including the new domicile documentation requirements.

The supervisors must inform you in writing within 7 days of their decision, stating the reason for the denial. The supervisors must write the word “rejected” on the registration form and preserve it. (RSA 654:13).

You may appeal the supervisors’ denial to the New Hampshire Superior Court. (RSA 654:42)

You may vote if the sentence is suspended or you are paroled. If you are sentenced for a felony, you cannot vote from the time of your sentence until your final discharge.

If you are in jail in pre-trial detention or as a result of a conviction for a misdemeanor you may vote by absentee ballot. Your domicile is the town or city where you were domiciled prior to being confined. (RSA 654:2-a)

Yes. Any person convicted of bribery or intimidation relating to elections or any willful violation of the election law is forever disqualified from voting, seeking or holding public office, unless the Supreme Court reinstates the right.

Maybe. The election laws do not prohibit you from voting. However, the petition for the court may have taken away your right to vote. If you are unsure, you should look at your guardianship papers.

For more information see: Guardianship and Voting Rights (pg 10), and our Legal Brief on Voting video

If you are unable to vote because:

• You will be absent from your city or town on election day,
• You have a physical disability that prohibits you from voting in person,
• You are a member of the armed services (or a spouse or dependent of a member) and will be absent on election day,
• You are living overseas, or
• You cannot vote in person because of observance of a religious commitment,

you may vote by absentee ballot.

You may request an absentee ballot from your town or city clerk.

You must either mail or personally deliver it to the city or town clerk. If you are mailing the ballot, it must be received by 5 p.m. on election day. If you are delivering the ballot you must do so by 5 p.m. on the day before the election. Town and City Clerks must be available between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the day before the election.

You may request an absentee ballot for both the primary election and general election during the same year. However, for subsequent elections, you will need to reapply. New Hampshire does not have permanent absentee voter status.

There is no deadline for applying for an absentee ballot. The only deadline is that it must be received by 5:00 p.m. on election day. (RSA 657:22)

The town or city clerk may deputize someone from his or her office, or take the ballot to you, and then accept receipt of the completed ballot in person.

The New Hampshire Constitution states that “polling places shall be easily accessible to all persons including disabled and elderly persons…” If you are unable to vote due to an inaccessible poll you should contact Disability Rights Center – NH at 1-800-834-1721 and/or the Attorney General’s Office at 1-866-868-3703. You may also vote by absentee ballot.

Any voter who arrives at a polling place and states under oath to the moderator that they are unable to access the polling place due to physical disability may have an absentee ballot delivered to that voter outside the guardrail to a location that is accessible to the voter. (RSA 659:20-a)

Each town now has in place an accessible voting system that includes a tablet, keyboard, and printer, called the one4all system. For a helpful explanation of the one4all system, view the NH Association for the Blind’s video, Demonstration of Accessible Voting for Vision Loss in New Hampshire.

You may also have a person of your choice assist you in the voting both, but not your employer or union official. You must declare to the moderator why you need assistance and your assistant must swear to the moderator that he or she will mark the ballot as you direct and keep your vote confidential. (RSA 659:20)

You may return the ballot to the moderator and request a new ballot. The moderator must write “canceled” on the ballot and sign it. The ballot is then considered “spoiled” and held by the moderator, who will place it with all other ballots when counting is over.

If you make a mistake on the second ballot, you may request a third ballot. However, if you make a mistake on the third ballot, you will not be permitted an additional ballot (RSA 659:22) and must decide whether to cast it with the mistake.

Contact us at 1-800-834-1721 if you would like to schedule an education and information session about your rights as a voter with disabilities or if you think your voting rights have been violated.

You may also contact the NH Department of Justice to file a complaint about an election law violation.