While distrust in elections has metastasized across the nation, New Hampshire residents still have a high degree of confidence in the Granite State’s election procedures.

Eighty-four percent had confidence their votes would be accurately cast and counted, according to a poll last year from the Democracy Defense Project. Just 11% did not.

Two prominent New Hampshire politicians – former Republican U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Richard Swett, who co-chair the state’s chapter of the Democracy Defense Project – attribute that to the local nature of New Hampshire’s elections.

“It’s a community endeavor,” said Sununu, speaking to a group of moderators from across New Hampshire at the State Archives on Monday. “Having those checklist supervisors, volunteers … gives the voter more comfort. They’re your friend. They’re your neighbor. They’re the person you voted for, maybe the person you voted against, but you know who they are. That’s very important, very foundational.”

Sununu was joined by Swett and Secretary of State David Scanlan for a question-and-answer panel.

They credited the state’s long-standing procedures, like requiring all ballots to be counted on election night and using paper ballots, for building trust. Those and other policies have been fine-tuned for years due to New Hampshire’s prominence with the First in the Nation primary.

Despite the rosy outlook for New Hampshire, local moderators in attendance expressed concerns over recently passed policies that impact voter participation and election practices – one being the controversial law signed by former Gov. Chris Sununu last year that rids voters of the option to sign an affidavit and instead requires them to show photo identification at the polls or be turned away.

Linda Callaway, the moderator in New Durham, said the problem isn’t just voters’ lack of trust in institutions. The government has lost confidence in the voter, she said.

“The fact that we got rid of the affidavits completely shows me we don’t trust our voter at all, because if we don’t trust them to sign a piece of paper saying that and believe an affidavit where they could be committing perjury, there is nothing we can do to trust our voter,” Callaway said.

In Concord, elections run fairly smoothly, said local moderators who attended. Voters trust the election process for the most part, said Jae Whitelaw, moderator for Ward 10 in East Concord, though questions about vote-counting machines are common. So, she and her poll workers explain how each part works, how they’re not connected to the internet and how they spit out the inserted ballot if anything is “off,” Whitelaw said.

“There are a lot of things being said and done now that create mistrust, and I think that the facts and explanations have to get out there,” Whitelaw said. “People need to be educated so that they can view everything they hear.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.