Eric Beebe

I am writing to oppose HB 1520 on the grounds that, besides being yet another flagrant attempt at voter suppression in a state with a proud track record of secure elections, its creation of a new “citizen card” for New Hampshire residents is downright dystopian. I’m old enough to remember when voters and representatives of both major parties held a healthy suspicion of government identification and categorization, but somehow this wisdom became lost in the past decade to calls for absurdist pledges of loyalty and the addition of hurdles to democracy for anyone who could not fit neatly in some demographic box. The establishment of a new requirement to vote in New Hampshire like a citizen card requiring an oath of allegiance would be an Orwellian step in the complete opposite direction of our motto of “Live free or die.” If you claim to hold the values this state values in any regard, I urge you to oppose the ridiculous lunge towards authoritarianism that is HB 1520.