NASHUA – State leaders want to stop three college professors from testifying in the SB 3 lawsuit, and protect two state attorneys from having to give testimony, in ongoing litigation over the law aimed at halting voter fraud.

In motions filed with the Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua, attorneys for New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office ask the court to keep the three professors from testifying.

The state is being sued by the New Hampshire Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters, and individual voters of SB 3, which introduced possible criminal penalties for people who register to vote on election day, but fail to file all the newly required paperwork within a given time period.

The plaintiffs claim the law is aimed at keeping college students, and the poor from registering to vote in New Hampshire.

The state wants Judge Charles Temple to keep Deborah Bosley, Muer Yang, and Lorraine Minnite from giving testimony. Bosley, an English professor at the University of North Carolina, is expected to give testimony about the “understandability” of the law and the required documents new voters must fill out and file under SB 3.

Yang, a professor in the department of operations and supply chain management at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, is expected to testify on the impact to voting lines that SB 3 will have in New Hampshire.

Minnite, a public policy and community development professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is expected to testify on the frequency of voter fraud.

The state now asserts in the court filing that voter fraud is not the issue, but the opportunities for voter fraud. However, in the past, Republicans, including Gov. Chris Sununu, have alluded to the possibility of Massachusetts Democrats crossing the border in buses to cast ballots during the 2016 presidential election.

Assistant Attorney General Ann Edwards recently testified before the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission that while some hired buses were used to bring voters to the polls on Election Day, the voters in the buses were legally permitted to vote in New Hampshire. New Hampshire law allows college students from other states, but who attend class full-time and live in New Hampshire for school, to vote in New Hampshire elections.

The state also wants to stop the plaintiffs from requiring Orville “Bud” Fitch, the Secretary of State’s “Voter Fraud Czar,” and Matthew Broadhead, to give testimony. Both attorneys have been instrumental in steering the legal strategy for the case, according to the motion, and anything they would be asked falls under attorney-client privilege.

Damien Fisher can be reached at 594-1245 or dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DF.

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