Recently, at the federal, state and even local levels I’ve noticed an expanding trend: attacking government officials by accusing them, without evidence, of wrongdoing.
I’ve often observed this tactic at the local level, both while serving as an appointed town official and as an audience member, during select board meetings, town meetings, local board and committee meetings and online. Most often, it takes the form of one individual (or sometimes a small group) claiming so-called malfeasance by government officials. This “malfeasance” could be as simple as not posting meeting minutes correctly or as large as financial fraud, often submitted with either spurious evidence or no evidence at all. Observers might then hear these accusations and come to believe (based on the vague nature of the allegations and the speaker’s impassioned tone) that major crimes are being committed in a town.
However, upon closer inspection, the so-called “malfeasance” more often involves procedural recommendations, errors that are easily corrected or a baseless claim. When faced with these realities, the accusers tend not to follow up, but to instead move on to their next unsubstantiated attack.
This tactic echoes widely publicized attacks at the federal level that are equally groundless. Consider, for example, President Trump’s accusations of widespread voter fraud, and that large numbers of people are voting illegally to skew election results. Trump, as with so many of his statements, never provides evidence for these claims.
Here in New Hampshire, we’ve seen accusations of voter fraud as well, as when then-Governor Chris Sununu falsely claimed in 2016 that busloads of Massachusetts residents came to the state to vote. However, as even the conservative Heritage Foundation (publisher of Project 2025) has reported, between 1982 and 2025, New Hampshire had only 29 cases of voter fraud — less than one per year.
New Hampshire saw more recent state-level accusations back in August, when Republican House Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney initiated impeachment proceedings against Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, the highest-ranking Democrat in state government. The accusations involved so-called “electioneering” in some of Hill’s emails. However, the accusation was without merit: the New Hampshire Attorney General found that Hill hadn’t committed any wrongdoing, and the impeachment inquiry was dropped.
When I hear accusations like these in any level of government, I stop and ask myself several questions: Has the accusation been verified? Does it indicate genuine wrongdoing? Is there evidence to support it? Importantly, does the accuser include a potential solution? Or, is the accuser using the accusation to further their own agenda, such as sowing distrust in our political system?
To be clear, wrongdoing can and does occur at every level of government, and it must be dealt with using a thorough, transparent process independent of political accusations. We have a judicial system, investigators at the federal, state and county levels, and even local police to deal with such matters. However, if no wrongdoing has been committed, the public must step up and challenge the accusations.
We don’t have to go too far back in history to learn what damage can occur when our political process falls under attack. It happened in the 1950s when Senator McCarthy falsely claimed that our government had been infiltrated by communists, and it happened again with Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
It is again time for the silent majority to challenge baseless accusations about nonexistent problems. Ending our silence can start by going to meetings, speaking up and supporting our local government officials when they take constructive and appropriate actions. We also need to challenge false accusations and share facts that clarify what really happened. Doing so will help protect our political processes both now and as we move forward into the future.
Ian Rogers lives in Warner.