By Patrick O’Grady
Granite State News Collaborative
What was once reserved for a narrowly defined group in New Hampshire, absentee balloting for the state primary on Sept. 8 and general election on Nov. 3 is now essentially open to every voter in the state as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That could mean a flood of absentee ballots that would have to be processed on Election Day, the only day they can be opened under current state law.
“We are probably going to get inundated with absentee ballots,” Laconia City Clerk Cheryl Hebert said, echoing a similar concern expressed by other clerks.
State law lays out in detail the absentee balloting process, including voter eligibility. Before that eligibility was expanded on April 10 to allow anyone concerned with the coronavirus to vote absentee, only voters who would be out of town on Election Day, unable to vote at the polls because of employment, had a physical disability or claimed a religious observance could receive the privilege.
An April 10 memorandum from the offices of the Attorney General and Secretary of State expanded the physical disability condition to include “a voter who is quarantined, including self-quarantine, for any reason due to COVID-19. It goes on to state that any voter … “who fears that voting in person may expose himself/herself or others to COVID-19 will be deemed to come within the definition of ‘disability’ for the purposes of obtaining an absentee ballot.”
How the change will affect the voting process in either election is a big question mark as of now. But the possibility of a majority of voters from small towns to large cities voting absentee could create a paperwork nightmare for city and town clerks across the state with a flood of ballots to be processed on before Election Day.
“Absentee ballots are a lot of work,” Claremont City Clerk Gwen Melcher said, expressing concern she will not have enough workers to handle the load. “I don’t want to think what it will be like. It is stressful enough (that day) and now this is added on top of it.”
In the 2016 presidential election, Claremont, like most other municipalities, saw the percentage of voter turnout come close to exceeding 80 percent, as compared to around the usual 20 percent in municipal and school elections. Additionally, Melcher said they registered 700 new voters on Election Day four years ago.
“We will have to guess how many (absentee ballots) we would want,” said Melcher. “Should we plan for 500? 1,000?
In 2016, Claremont had 422 absentee ballots and it took up until the polls closed at 7 p.m. to process them all.
“Nobody will be equipped,” she said about this year.
The memorandum from the Attorney General and Secretary of State also said they plan to provide guidance to election officials on planning for and accommodating “a significant increase in absentee ballots.”
Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlon said his office is well aware of the potential for a large volume of ballots that will have to be processed during the polling hours. Though it is not possible to predict whether the pandemic will have passed by election time, Scanlon said they are preparing for a “worse-case scenario.”
“We are working on ways they can handle an increase of absentee ballots,” Scanlon said. “We are going to try to speed up the process as much as possible.”
Scanlon said opening absentee balloting to all voters is not the same as early voting, which is not allowed under law in New Hampshire and he does not see that changing during the pandemic.
“We are in the middle of a crisis but we should not depart from state statute to conduct an election,” Scanlon said.
The first step in the process, which can be done now by any voter, is to file an application for an absentee ballot. Some municipalities have them on their web site, while others have to be picked up at the clerk’s office.
“I definitely suggest (voters apply) now,” Hebert said. “The earlier the better;If you wait until the last minute, you risk maybe not getting a ballot or not mailing it back in time.”
Melcher said it will be easier to mail ballots for the Sept. 8 primary because those ballots are printed (by the state) far in advance; however with the general election, ballots are usually not available until a month before the general election.
Current state laws require absentee ballots be opened only on Election Day at the polling place. The process requires the voter’s name to be signed in by the ballot clerk before the ballot is fed into the voting machine,
Absentee voting, which is the same as mail in voting, has been a topic on the national level as a number of states have yet to conduct their presidential primaries. President Trump recently alleged the process allows for fraud, though he did not cite any specific examples.
In New Hampshire, only three people were prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office for voter fraud in 2016 that involved absentee voting. In one case, a Hampton couple cast absentee ballots in their hometown then voted again in Massachusetts. In the second case, a 21-year-old mailed an absentee ballot to Dracut, Mass., and then registered to vote in Durham. All three were found guilty and lost their right to vote in New Hampshire in addition to being fined.
Scanlon said the state will receive federal money to help cover the cost of the elections during the COVID-19 pandemic and he is confident that money will give communities the resources they need to handle any increase in absentee ballots.
“I expect most of that money will be targeted at the local level,” he said.
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