New Hampshire Town Elections Offer A Preview Of Citizenship Voting Rules Being Considered Nationwide

A voter in Milford, New Hampshire, missed out on approving the town's 19 million operating budget, electing a cemetery trustee and buying a new dump truck. In Durham, an 18-year-old high school student did not get a say in who should serve on the school board or whether 125,000 should go toward replacing artificial turf on athletic fields.

Neither was able to participate in recent town elections in New Hampshire thanks to a new state law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Their experiences, recounted by town clerks, could prove instructive for the rest of the country as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act advances in Congress and more than a dozen states consider similar legislation.

"Everything that conservatives tried to downplay, New Hampshire told us exactly what would happen on a national scale under the SAVE Act," said Greta Bedekovics, a former policy adviser for Senate Democrats who is now with the Center for American Progress.

Married women with changed names face extra hurdles

Voting rights groups are particularly concerned that married women who have changed their names will encounter trouble when trying to register because their birth certificates list their maiden names.