New Hampshire Primary Source gives you breaking and behind-the-scenes news and analysis on all things political in the Granite State. John DiStaso is the most experienced political writer in the state and has been writing a weekly column since 1982. He is a recipient of a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the New Hampshire Press Association. To sign up for WMUR's weekly New Hampshire Primary Source and political email newsletter, which will be delivered to your inbox on Thursday at 6 a.m., click here.>> Download the free WMUR appGARDNER: STILL EASIEST STATE TO VOTE. The New Hampshire Supreme Court weighed in last Wednesday with an opinion on questions sent by a federal judge who had been hearing a challenge to the New Hampshire voting residency law known as House Bill 1264.The court said that, in its opinion, even before House Bill 1264 was passed in 2018, there was no distinction between domicile and residence. An earlier Supreme Court ruling, issued in 2015, struck down a law that required residency in order to vote .Since that ruling, New Hampshire had been the only state in the nation that did not require one to be a resident to vote, only that one be domiciled in the state. Residence and domicile were two different things.With last week’s opinion, the distinction once again does not exist. While the court did not issue a ruling, its answers to the questions posed by the federal judge prompted the plaintiffs challenging House Bill 1264 – two Dartmouth College students, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New Hampshire Democratic Party – to drop their federal lawsuit late Friday afternoon.Ironically, two justices who ruled in the unanimous decision of 2015 creating the distinction between residence and domicile also joined in last week’s unanimous opinion that effectively countered the earlier ruling -- Justices Gary Hicks and James Bassett.Gardner remained low-key when we asked for his reaction. There were no proclamations of vindication. No proverbial victory dances.But he said that his take on the voting in the state was reaffirmed.“We have lived through eight years of this, starting in 2012, this question of residence and domicile,” Gardner said.“It was never voter suppression at all,” Gardner said. “What’s voter suppression is people repeatedly saying in the press that it is voter suppression and people reading it and reading it. And then, it goes away in a whimper after eight years late on a Friday afternoon before a Memorial Day weekend.”“If we have voter suppression, then every state in the country has it,” he said. “But we are the easiest state in the country to vote in, and that remains the case today.”Gardner is still perturbed by an online petition posted by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen more than two years ago calling House Bill 1264 a “voter suppression law” that “illegally terminates (students’) right to vote.” As we reported at the time, 16 Democrats who were then presidential candidates signed Shaheen’s petition. And as we reported, all of those candidates came from states whose voting laws were more restrictive in one way or another than New Hampshire – even if House Bill 1264 took effect, which occurred in July 2019.Gardner also cites progressive voting groups such as Let America Vote putting Gov. Chris Sununu and two Republican lawmakers into a “Voter Suppression Hall of Shame” for supporting House Bill 1264 and opposing Democratic efforts to repeal it.Especially when one considers that New Hampshire consistently has among the highest percentages of voter turnouts among the states, the label “is so blatantly unfair,” Gardner said.As Gardner often says, to him the proof is in the turnout.And, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project, New Hampshire has been among the top four states in voter turnout as a percentage of voting age population in every presidential election since 2004 and in the top 10 in every presidential election since 1992.One of the raps against New Hampshire by the progressive groups is that is does not normally allow for mail-in voting. Gardner says U.S. Elections Project data shows New Hampshire's presidential years' turnout has been higher than states that allow for mail voting. The Granite State is effectively allowing universal mail-in voting this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be interesting to see how the pandemic on one hand, and universal mail-in voting on the other hand, affects the state’s turnout in September primary and especially the November general election.CANDIDATES SET TO MAKE IT OFFICIAL. The filing period for the 2020 state and county elections opens in just six days, June 3, and it will be interesting to see how the candidates handle the process amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here. KEY GUN SAFETY GROUP ENDORSEMENT. BradyPAC, known as the sister organization to the anti-gun violence advocacy group Brady, is putting its significant influence and resources behind Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. Click here.TUG-OF-WAR AMID CRISIS. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Democratic and Republican leaderships in the New Hampshire House are engaged in a partisan tug-of-war over the upcoming legislative session scheduled for June 11. Click here.FOIA REQUEST. The New Hampshire Democratic Party continued Thursday to focus on Gov. Chris Sununu’s invitations to at least one elite taxpayer-funded dinners hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department. Click here.PLATFORM ADOPTED. The state Democratic Party said this week that its delegates to the May 9 state convention adopted a party platform that focuses more intently on rights what for the party calls “vulnerable communities.” Click here.REMATCH SOUGHT. Virtually since the day Democrat Jon Morgan defeated him in the 2018 District 23 state Senate election, Republican Bill Gannon made it known that he would seek a rematch in 2020. Click here.LOU IS IN. Hampton Falls Selectman Lou Gargiulo, one of President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters in New Hampshire, says he’ll file his candidacy for the District 24 state Senate seat on June 9 or 10. Click here. BRETON BACKS MOWERS. Donald Trump loyalist and Windham Selectman Bruce Breton has made his choice in the Republican 1st District U.S. House primary and has decided to endorse former Trump campaign and State Department official Matt Mowers. Click here.ENDORSEMENTS, NEW VIDEO. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Donald Bolduc today will announce endorsements by former state Sen. Gary Lambert and tech business creator Jim Bender. Click here.GRANITE STATE CONVERSATIONS 2.0. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bryant Corky Messner’s campaign says it is planning to turn the page in an upcoming series of conversations with voters to focus on “life after the COVID-19 pandemic.” Click here.ENDORSEMENTS FOR CROCHETIERE. Three state House members, a selectman and a local business leader who’s a Donald Trump loyalist have signed on in support of Hampton Falls business executive Bruce Crochetiere in his bid for the District 3 Executive Council seat. Click here.STEVENS ENDORSEMENTS. Republican District 3 Executive Council candidate Janet Stevens has picked up 11 areas endorsements for her bid to succeed outgoing Councilor Russell Prescott. Click here. (John DiStaso can be reached at jdistaso@hearst.com or distasoj@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso and on Facebook: Facebook.com/JohnDiStasoWMUR.)