The issue of voter registration has created a bright line in New Hampshire politics just days after citizens went to the polls for our primary election on Sept. 11. The debate has created two camps: those who believe you should vote where you live vs. those who say you should vote wherever you feel like it.

These competing philosophies are at the heart of the lawsuit filed recently by the League of Women Voters on behalf of several out-of-state college students who wish to vote here and are challenging the constitutionality of New Hampshire’s voter registration form.

As you may be aware, the league (which is almost 100 years old), prides itself on being bipartisan, educating voters and making democracy work. That is why it seems strange to me that it objects to informing individuals who move here from another state and register to vote that they are also required to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license and register their car here (if they have a driver’s license or own a car). To me this is common sense.

To the League of Women Voters, this requirement is somehow voter intimidation or a type of illegal poll tax. This is simply not true. This requirement is simply about making choices.

Both Republicans and Democrats want everyone to vote, but it’s become apparent that many of us disagree about where everyone should actually cast their ballots. Most Republicans think people should vote where their home is, not where they live temporarily, because home is where they have ties to their community and have a real interest in the outcome of an election.

In contrast, many Democrats think people should be able to vote wherever they happen to be on Election Day. Same-day registration is one thing, but drive-by voting is quite another.

The league’s lawsuit raises a very important question: Should a student who attends college in New Hampshire, but who lives in Nebraska, gets a scholarship based on residency in Nebraska, is claimed as a dependent for tax purposes by parents in Nebraska, has a driver’s license and car registration in Nebraska, and intends to return to Nebraska after graduating from college be allowed to vote in New Hampshire? The League of Women Voters thinks she should be able to vote here with no consequences. I think the student should vote in Nebraska. What’s more, she can do so easily by simply requesting an absentee ballot from her home state.

The bottom line here is that the student has choices. She can register and vote here — if she is also willing to change her driver’s license and car registration. Or she can vote absentee in her home state. She simply needs to pick one and accept the requirements either way. And either way she is not being disenfranchised.

Let’s take another example besides a college student. A businessman lives and works in New Jersey. His company sends him on a temporary, two-month work assignment to New Hampshire. He’s going to be in New Hampshire, not New Jersey, on Election Day. So where should he vote? Most of us would say he should vote in New Jersey. Again, the League of Women Voters disagrees. It thinks people staying here temporarily should be allowed to vote here.

Hypotheticals aside, here is the political reality in New Hampshire. In 2007 Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan, passed a law that said everyone should vote — wherever they want. Four years later, Republicans repealed that law, returning to the previous requirement that in New Hampshire everyone should vote where they live. It is worth noting that the U.S. Department of Justice approved these most recent changes prior to voters going to the polls on Sept. 11.

When Republicans repealed the 2007 law, the registration requirements returned to where they had been prior to 2007; people were informed that if they chose to vote here, they were also required to change their driver’s license and car registration to New Hampshire. So for years the League of Women Voters was able to complete its mission of educating voters and making democracy work in our state without filing a lawsuit.

So why is it a problem now?

With the general election just around the corner on Nov. 6, it is a question the league and Democrats like Maggie Hassan need to answer.