Granite Staters Urge Special Committee on Voter Confidence to Focus on Improving New Hampshire’s Elections in Order to Improve Confidence

Nearly 1,000 Granite Staters sign petition supporting the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights’ voter confidence platform

CONCORD, NH — Today, the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights (NHCVR) delivered a petition to the Special Committee on Voter Confidence signed by over 800 Granite Staters supporting the platform the campaign released earlier this year. The NHCVR platform calls for policies that would make New Hampshire’s elections more accessible and efficiently run. 

“New Hampshire is the hardest state in the country to vote in, and improving the administration and accessibility of our elections would lower the cost of voting and increase voter confidence,” said New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights director, McKenzie St. Germain. “Over the past 6 months, the majority of testimony and outreach the committee heard was from Granite Staters who simply want well-run, accurate, modern, and accessible elections.”

“The Special Committee on Voter Confidence should join the hundreds of Granite Staters who signed this petition by committing to include common-sense election modernization reforms and policies in their final report that will strengthen Granite Stater’s high confidence in our election process.”

Key recommendations include developing easy-to-understand templates and sources for information for both town election websites and the Secretary of State’s website, using the existing Help America Votes Act funds to support improved training and recruitment for poll workers, implementing online voter registration or an election information portal so voters can easily keep their information up to date with their local clerk, and joining the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to maintain clean voter rolls. The full list of recommendations is below. 

1. Administrative Improvements 

These changes can be made without additional legislative action and will assist voters in understanding how to vote in their communities, as well as support election officials to run polling places on Election Day. 

1. Provide a template for towns for their websites so each town website is up-to-date and accurate

2. Ensure the Secretary of State’s (SoS) website has up-to-date polling hours and locations

3. Ensure the SoS website has easy-to-understand and accessible guidelines for registering to vote and voting

4. Invest in new ballot counting devices to ensure that ballot machines stop breaking down during election day 

5. Expand the use of e-poll books so every community who wishes to use them can use them. 

6. Utilize additional state funding or Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grants for local election officials to support their work and help recruit and train poll workers and volunteers.

1. Including using the existing HAVA funds for towns and cities to draw from via grants which could fund trainings, educational materials, and assist with recruiting new volunteers or poll workers

1. Voter Access Improvements 

These policies will likely need legislation to establish them and will create greater access for voters to New Hampshire elections by providing additional opportunities to register to vote and  access their registration and voting information

1. Implement proven secure registration tools including:

1. Online Voter Registration (Or Election Information Portal)

2. Automated Voter Registration 

3. Multi-lingual registration and voting documents 

1. At minimum provided in Spanish

4. Expand absentee voting by codifying the Attorney General and Governor's order from the 2020 election. 

1. Post Election Improvements 

These improvements will increase trust in our elections by ensuring accurate 

post-election data on results and voter rolls

1. Join the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) so New Hampshire can have clean voter rolls and accurate data post-election — boosting confidence in our elections.

2. Implement a robust post-election audit system 

The New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights is a coalition of state and national advocacy organizations, voters, attorneys and watchdog organizations working to ensure and preserve the right to vote for every Granite Stater, and is a project of America Votes New Hampshire.

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