New Hampshire announced the creation of a voter confidence commission Tuesday to address concerns raised by Granite State residents.
“It is clear to me that for some time now, a few years, that there’s just a decline, both nationally and in the state of New Hampshire, on general voters’ belief about the accuracy of election results,” Secretary of State David Scanlan said.
The announcement comes in the wake of an audit into a state legislative race in which former President Donald Trump and his supporters made allegations of election fraud, according to a report.
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“I felt that it’s really important to initiate a discussion on that topic, a very public one, involving some very capable people with diverse interests so we kind of get to the bottom of why we find ourselves in a situation and how we can put the brakes on it and turn that trend around,” Scanlan said.
The audit revealed that a discrepancy had resulted from a machine that was used to fold absentee ballots, as opposed to a vote-counting machine, the report noted.
Many in the state are pushing to eliminate some automated elements pertaining to elections, according to the report.
Scanlan has said that decentralized elements make elections in his state sound.
“Because of that, it is a very human process, which should also be understood to be not a perfect process,” he said.
The problem in the race caused by the machine was a mistake “done in good faith to try to make the system more efficient,” Bradford Cook, the commission’s co-chairman, said.
“Yet if people think there’s got to be evil in there someplace, well, all we can do is present them with the facts,” he said.
According to a report, the bipartisan commission consists of eight members, some of whom are activists, while others include nonprofit members and former legislators.
The commission is looking to hold various listening sessions throughout the state, the report noted.
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Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Dick Swett is the other co-chairman of the commission. “We want to make sure that the good technology that we have in New Hampshire, the good people that are participating in the polls, and the good system that we have can be kept as it is or improved,” he said.
