Ms. Cory was a registered Republican, but at her primary polling place, she was handed a Democratic ballot and then told she couldn’t change her registration.
ROCHESTER, N.H.—Soutisa Cory intended to vote for former President Donald Trump when she entered her ward’s polling place in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 23.
It was also her oldest son’s first time voting, she told The Epoch Times.
Ms. Cory had filled in the Republican primary ballot in 2022 to vote for her boyfriend, New Hampshire state Rep. Mike Belcher.
Because she hadn’t flipped to undeclared right after voting that year, by default, Ms. Cory became a registered Republican. That meant she should have received the GOP presidential primary ballot on Jan. 23.
But she was handed a Democratic primary ballot.
“I said, ‘I’m not a Democrat,’“ Ms. Cory said. ”When I talked to them and said it needs to be changed, they said, ‘You can’t.’”
Mr. Belcher, who had accompanied Ms. Cory, said Ms. Cory was sent over to the supervisor.
The supervisor, a local official charged with oversight of voter registration, “seemed to confirm” Ms. Cory’s status as a Democrat, Mr. Belcher told The Epoch Times.
The poll workers informed her she couldn’t obtain a Republican ballot.
In New Hampshire, registered Democrats wanting to vote in the Jan. 23 Republican primary needed to have changed their registration by October 2023.
Ms. Cory said she felt disenfranchised.
“I was in tears. I felt like my right to vote for who I wanted to was revoked.”
Calling for Help
Unlike many other people, Ms. Cory had some powerful and knowledgeable local connections. She called her friend, state Rep. Kelley Potenza, another Republican.
Ms. Potenza said she told Ms. Cory: “You’re not going to be denied the right to vote. This is ridiculous.”
Ms. Cory, Mr. Belcher, and her son proceeded to the city clerk’s office to check her registration.
“Initially, the situation at the [clerk’s] office was going sideways, and it was suggested, rather matter-of-factly, that she was a Democrat,” Mr. Belcher wrote on social media platform X.
Mr. Belcher said he was only able to make progress at the clerk’s office when he made it clear he was an elected official.
“I placed my legislative ID down on the counter and explained that I’m pretty sure she took the Republican ballot in ‘22 because myself and another friend of hers was on the ballot,” Mr. Belcher wrote.
The clerk then accessed the hand-written records, which proved Ms. Cory right: she was a registered Republican.
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