Published: 7/11/2022 12:57:59 AM
Modified: 7/11/2022 12:55:12 AM
The New Hampshire Special Committee on Voter Confidence will meet in Concord for the first time on Tuesday to discuss ballot-counting machines as well as other issues raised by whoever attends.
The committee was established in April by Secretary of State Dave Scanlan to “identify root causes of voter confidence decline and make recommendations to reverse the trend.”
It has held four public “listening sessions” around the state and has scheduled six more.
The eight-person commission will eventually make suggestions that could include recommendations for future legislation or policy changes.
Scanlan, a longtime assistant secretary of state overseeing elections who moved up when Bill Gardner retired last year, said when announcing the commission that it was necessary because New Hampshire is seeing more public doubts about election results.
The two co-chairmen are Brandon Cook, a New Hampshire attorney who chairs the state’s Ballot Law Commission, and Dick Swett, a former U.S. Representative and ambassador to Denmark.
Scanlan and the two co-chairmen said when the commission was unveiled that its most important function will be to educate the public about how elections work in hopes of allaying worries.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Cook will discuss the criteria the Ballot Law Commission uses to select ballot-counting machines, followed by a presentation by the companies that make and sell the machines.
New Hampshire is scheduled to replace its Accuvote ballot-counting machines, which are so old that getting parts and software support is difficult.
Members of the public in attendance can speak after these presentations.
The session will take place in the Archives & Records Management building, 9 Ratification Way (formerly 71 South Fruit St.), at 1 p.m.
It will be streamed online, but for listening only us06web.zoom.us/j/84013115832.
For more information, see sos.nh.gov/elections/information/notices/special-committee-voter-confidence