In the New Hampshire Union Leader, Secretary of State William Gardner tells the paper he is not happy with “one-size fits all” federal legislation to require mandatory early voting periods based on previous bad experiences with other federal involvement in different parts of the electoral process. He also states that the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) passed a bipartisan resolution advising against the attempted federalization of state election functions.  It sounds like a bipartisan group of state election officials don’t like the nationalization of elections in America and are speaking out against the overreach.

Two weeks ago, Gardner was in Washington,
D.C., for the winter conference of the National Association of
Secretaries of State, where he and other top state election officials
voiced concern about possible federal legislation.

A year ago,
the NASS passed a resolution urging Congress to “respect our country’s
legal and historical distinctions in federal and state sovereignty and
avoid pre-emptions of state authority when drafting federal
legislation.”

The 2012 resolution also states, “Federal
legislation should not curtail state innovation and authority solely for
the sake of creating uniform methods among the states; all legislation
should grant states maximum flexibility in determining methodologies for
properly and effectively carrying out the duties of secretaries of
state, including the protection of voting rights.”