New Hampshire has been a bellwether state in national ID debates before. I wrote about its push-back against the E‑Verify federal background check system in a recent post entitled “Cardless National ID and the E‑Verify Rebellion.”

The bill that was the subject of that post, HB 1549 by Rep. Seth Cohn (R‑Merrimack 6), has now passed the Senate, and it is on its way to Governor John Lynch’s desk for his signature.

It is pared down from its original version, but it now makes clear that state driver’s license records cannot be used in a national identification system. That is what E‑Verify is rapidly becoming, and New Hampshire has rapidly said “No.”