Vote-counting machine foes hoped for a surge of success in New Hampshire. They bought barely a ripple

HOPKINTON, N.H. (AP) — Just like the previous saying about March itself, an orchestrated effort to do away with vote-counting machines in New Hampshire this month got here in like a lion and went out like a lamb.

“Digital machines will face the wrath of New Hampshire voters in March!” Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and ally of former President Donald Trump, crowed in a January fundraising pitch.

Not fairly. After initially focusing on 55 cities, Lindell’s supporters gathered sufficient petitions to deliver the subject up at 23 of the annual city conferences held this month to undertake budgets and settle different issues. Solely Danville — inhabitants 4,500 — voted in favor of hand-counting ballots, and just for presidential elections in a choice that each the city’s lawyer and the secretary of state say is unlikely to face.

“There was a number of misinformation that was being unfold,” Secretary of State David Scanlan stated Thursday. “I believe most people noticed by way of it, and the votes at these city conferences mirror that.”

The push for hand-counting ballots has been gaining popularity throughout rural America in response to unfounded claims of widespread fraud tied to ballot-counting machines following the 2020 election. There isn’t a proof that machines had been tampered with, and such claims have been repeatedly rejected by election consultants, prosecutors and judges.

In New Hampshire, sinister flyers despatched to some households described vote-counting machines as “flawed and hackable” and warned of manipulation. Most city officers disagreed, saying there was no proof of any issues and that returning at hand counts would have been labor intensive and dear.

In Hopkinton, Selectboard Chair Sabrina Dunlap referenced the “baseless claims” made by outdoors teams in arguing in opposition to the hand-counting measure that was defeated Thursday evening.

“The poll machines are examined earlier than each election, and this course of is open to the general public, as is the ballot-counting course of,” she stated. “The city has been utilizing these machines for a lot of, a few years and our election officers verify they’re safe and correct.”

Danville Selectman Shawn O’Neil, who championed the problem in his city, stated he has religion in native election staff however has broad considerations about vote-counting machines. He restricted the query to the presidential race as a result of it’s the nation’s high workplace.

“It units the path for the free world,” O’Neil stated, including that “if sinister individuals are going to be corrupt, they’re not going to do it for the Rockingham Register of Deeds workplace.”

The issue? Two months earlier than the vote, Danville’s city lawyer, Matt Serge, had suggested O’Neil and the opposite selectmen that the vote probably wouldn’t stand. He stated that’s as a result of underneath state regulation, “the city can’t decide and select which votes are machine-counted and that are counted by hand.” Scanlan this week agreed, and stated he’s consulting with the state lawyer common’s workplace on the matter.

“It’s an all-or-nothing scenario,” Scanlan stated. “Frankly, I believe that it will be a foul precedent to start out permitting particular person races to be focused for hand-counting versus machine-counting.”

Undeterred, O’Neil stated he believes the state regulation is ambiguous and the city’s vote was legitimate. He plans to take authorized motion to implement the need of Danville voters, he stated, and he and his supporters will decide up the tab.

Whereas hand counts have been largely restricted to smaller cities, notably within the Northeast, a few counties elsewhere have ditched machines lately. However hand-counting ballots in massive, city counties would take weeks. Specialists say that research have proven that machines usually are not solely sooner however extra correct than hand counts. Many election officers do depend on some measure of hand-counting, nonetheless, as a part of their post-election course of to confirm that the machines labored appropriately.

It’s not the primary time the problem has surfaced in New Hampshire. Two years ago, the Legislature killed a invoice that will have mandated hand-counting statewide, and 9 cities rejected returning to hand-counting for his or her communities.

Within the newest go-round, lots of the cities that debated the problem swiftly rejected it. In Meredith, not a single individual spoke in favor of eliminating vote-counting machines.

Nancy Jewell informed the gang of greater than 500 that she’d labored on elections for greater than 40 years as a precinct warden and ballot employee.

“I’d wish to say a number of issues concerning the previous approach, counting by hand,” Jewell stated. “We wanted twice the workforce. First with the day shift, when the polls are open. After which with a complete totally different evening shift to depend all of the ballots by hand, typically not ending till 5 or 6 o’clock within the morning.”

Richard Tracy stated on the assembly that he knew from private expertise that ballot-counting gadgets had been correct and safe, and that no one in New Hampshire had offered any credible proof to help allegations of stolen votes or hackable machines.

In Hopkinton, Laurie Pappas was one in every of three voters who spoke in favor of eliminating the machines Thursday evening. Mentioning Lindell in her remarks, she in contrast the present system to “somebody screaming bingo and declaring they only received the jackpot, however nobody is allowed to see their card.”

“Hand counts equal election transparency,” she stated.

Don Vickery, who stated he’s registered as an undeclared voter “as a result of there’s no choice for disgusted,” was one in every of three voters who spoke in opposition to the measure.

“I believe our state, and our group, is able to conducting honest and assured elections,” he stated.

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Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire.