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The state’s top election official did his best Tuesday to ward off in advance any conspiracy theories about next week’s election, saying that claims about illegal voters or ballot tampering don’t resonate in New Hampshire because of in-person registration and local control of polling places. “Where other states use federal agencies, state agencies, to register voters ..
. (and) any third party can run voter registration drives or voters can mail in registration – that doesn’t happen in New Hampshire,” Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said during a traditional pre-election press conference. “In New Hampshire, to register to vote you have to appear before a local election official.
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There is a one-on-one interaction.” Scanlan noted that the state’s 308 polling places are each staffed by elected moderators, clerks and selectmen who live in the community, with no “top-down” control on voting day. “With all these elected officials .
.. there is very little opportunity for collusion and conspiracy,” Scanlan told a roomful of journalists crammed into his office.
“It would be very, very difficult to pull off because of how we run our elections.” The mere fact that Scanlan made such a point in a press conference that in past years was devoted to benign topics like turnout predictions and COVID procedures is a reflection of national concern about the effect on the electorate of conspiracy theories. The concern is fueled by former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 loss and his repeated statements that only fraud can keep him from winning this year.
It resonates in New Hampshire, where even when he won the presidency in 2016 Trump made vague claims that “busloads” of Massachusetts voters came over the border to vote for Democractic candidate Hilary Clinton, a claim that he never backed up with evidence. In Tuesday’s conference, Scanlan also pointed to New Hampshire’s lack of early voting and drop-off ballot boxes and our almost complete lack of “ballot harvesting,” the gathering of many completed ballots by one person who transports them to be counted. That can only be done by certain nursing homes and similar facilities.
These limits make fewer places where uncertainty can enter, he said. Article continues after..
. Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess “We have a process that is continuous, transparent, observable,” Scanlan said. “You can trust the results.
” Scanlan cautioned voters to be wary of misinformation and disinformation, referencing a video apparently made by Russian intelligence that pretended to show election officials destroying Trump ballots in Pennsylvania. “Voters should be prepared,” he said. “Use good judgment when you see or hear things on social media platforms.
” In other matters, Scanlan cautioned that voting may take a while both because of high numbers due to the presidential election and because this is the first national election after a purging of voter rolls due to the 2020 Census. That purging could have removed many people who are still legal but vote only every four years, when presidents are on the ballot. Such people can re-register at the polls on election day, but this process takes time and can slow down the voting.
Scanlan said about 85,000 absentee ballots had been requested out of 901,784 registered voters, a high but not a record number. The tally of registered voters includes 331,519 undeclared voters, 304,340 Republicans and 265,925 Democrats. David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.
com.
