Bill Clinton on NH’s “Determined Effort” to Limit Voting

Last week, former President Bill Clinton referred to attempts by the New Hampshire legislature to pass new voter restrictions as part of the most “disciplined, passionate, determined effort” to disenfranchise voters since Jim Crow.

“[O]ne of the most pervasive political movements going on outside Washington today is the disciplined, passionate, determined effort of Republican governors and legislators to keep most of you from voting next time. There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today.

“Why has New Hampshire [tried to] made it almost impossible for college students who come from other states but live in New Hampshire most of the year to vote there? Why is all this going on? This is not rocket science. They are trying to make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate than the 2008 electorate.”