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1. Evidence of Vote Buying and Voter
Coercion in New Hampshire
The legislative history of the 2014
amendment to RSA 659:35 contains only a
single reference to ■an actual alléged instance of vote buying in New Hampshire.
As Representative Till described the incident:
I was told by a Goffstown resident that
he knew for a fact that one of the major
parties paid students from St Anselm’s
$50 to vote in the. 2012 election. I don’t
know whether that is true or not, but I
do know that if I were going to pay
someone to vote a particular way, I
would want proof that they actually voted that way.
Legislative History at 000064. She did not
provide any other details about the incident, and it is not discussed elsewhere in
the legislative history.
The summary judgment record does not
include any evidence that either vote buying or voter coercion has occurred in New
Hampshire since the late 1800s. See Doc.
No. 18-1 at 2. Moreover, the state has
received no complaints that images of
marked ballots have been used to buy or
coerce other votes. See Exhibit B to the
Declaration of Gilíes Bissonnette, Esq. in
Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary
Judgment (“Exhibit B”) at 11, Rideout v.
Gardner, No. 14-cv-489-PB (filed Mar.'27,
2015).
2. Vote Buying and Voter Coercion in
the United States
There is no doubt that vote buying and
voter coercion were at one time significant
problems in the United States. See Doe v.
Reed, 561 U.S. 186, 226, 130 S.Ct. 2811,
177 L.Ed.2d 493 (2010) (Scalia, J., concurring) (citing Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S.
191, 202, 112 S.Ct. 1846, 119 L.Ed.2d 5
(1992) (plurality opinion)); Susan C.
Stokes, et al., Brokers, Voters, and Clien-telism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics
200 (2013); Richard Hasen, Vote Buying,
88 Cal. L.Rev. 1323, 1327 (2000); Jill Lepore, Rock, Paper, Scissors: How We
Used To Vote, New Yorker, Oct. 13, 2008,
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/
10/13/rock-paper-scissors.
Initially, the United States followed the
viva voce system of voting used in England, in which voting “was not a private
affair, but an open, public decision, witnessed by all and improperly influenced by
some.” Burson, 504 U.S. at 200, 112 S.Ct.
1846. Gradually, states repealed the viva
voce system in favor of written ballots. Id.
At first, voters were expected to provide
their own pen and paper, but when that
became too complex, parties provided voters with printed ballot paper with a
“ready-made slate of candidates.” L.E.
Fredman, The Australian Ballot: The Story of an American Reform 21 (1968).
• Because early written ballots were not
secret ballots, they provided an opportunity for parties to buy votes. The parties
used ballot paper that “was colored or
otherwise recognizable” from a distance to
ensure that the voter used the ballot he
was given. Id. at 22; see Burson, 504 U.S.
at 200, 112 S.Ct. 1846. Ballot peddlers or
district captains then paid voters as .they
emerged from the polling place. Fredman, supra, at 22. For instance, in 1892,
16% of Connecticut voters were “up for
sale” at prices-ranging from $2 to $20. Id.
at 23. ■Similarly, in 1887, a “study of New
York City politics estimated that one-fifth
of voters were bribed.” Stokes, supra, at
227.
By the end of the 19th century, most' of
the United States had adopted a new voting method referred to as the “Australian
ballot.” Fredman, supra, at 83. The Australian ballot is a method of voting using a
secret ballot that was first used in Australia in the mid-19th century. Id. at 7-9. It
has four characteristics: (1) ballots are