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    • How New Hampshire counts votes
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    How New Hampshire counts votes

    Vaseline Posted on

    CONCORD – On Tuesday, November 5, votes cast in the New Hampshire presidential election will be counted by voting machines, election officials and volunteers.

    Read on to learn more about how votes are counted in New Hampshire, with information from the Secretary of State.

    How are votes counted in New Hampshire?

    In New Hampshire, communities can choose to count ballots by machine or by hand. Most use machine counting because it is faster and more accurate. One hundred and ten cities and 67 precincts, including most Seacoast communities such as Exeter, Hampton and Portsmouth, use AccuVote vote counting devices. Fifteen cities and six districts use vote counting devices from VotingWorks. On the Seacoast, Rochester uses both types of machines. Ballot counting machines count all correctly marked races (meaning the oval is filled in) except write-in votes.

    However, 122 New Hampshire towns, including the coastal towns of New Castle and South Hampton, have not switched to machines and are still counting their ballots by hand.

    Not all votes can be counted by machines: write-in votes and ballots where the voter has marked their choice in some way other than filling in the oval, such as by circling the name of the chosen candidate, require hand counting. In these situations, the city’s election moderator, who is elected by ballot every two years, makes the decision on how to count these ballots by hand.

    Voter guide Seacoast NH election 2024: Learn more about candidates, election times and how to register

    Regardless of how the ballots are counted, all votes are cast on paper ballots. None of the machines can connect to the internet.

    How are votes counted by hand in New Hampshire?

    The most common, most accurate, and easiest way to count by hand is the “sort-and-stack” method. This method sorts the ballots into piles: one for each candidate, ballots with more than one marked choice, ballots with skipped choices, writings, and judgment calls. Then, counters and observers look at each pile, making sure they are only looking at one candidate or question on the ballot at that time. Each ballot paper is then checked three times and when the counters have agreed on the number of votes for each candidate, they record this on the ballot paper.

    Another manual counting method is the “read-and-mark” method, where counting teams count all races and questions in one stack of 50 ballots at a time, marking a counting sheet as they go.

    More details on these hand counting methods can be found in the Counting and Recounts section of the New Hampshire Election Procedure Manual 2022-23.

    How are absentee ballots processed and counted?

    Election officials may begin processing absentee ballots at 1 p.m. on Election Day, or at another time no sooner than two hours after polls open if they are properly posted 24 hours in advance.

    Election officials process absentee ballots at the ballot box. To do this, they remove ballots and affidavits from their envelopes and check the name against the voter checklist to ensure they are registered and have not already voted in person. The ballot papers are then removed from the envelope and thrown into the voting counting machine or ballot box. They are counted along with the rest of the ballots after the polls close.

    What happens during a recount?

    No automatic recounts are required in New Hampshire, and election officials are instructed to avoid mistakes that would require a recount. However, a candidate may request a recount if the difference between the number of votes cast for the requesting candidate and the declared elected candidate is less than 20% of the total votes cast.

    If a recount request is approved, election night ballots will be counted by the Secretary of State’s team, one Democratic volunteer counter and one Republican volunteer counter. They will count by hand and each ballot will be watched under a camera, by vote challengers and by observers.

    State officials say the recount process should be open and transparent. Anyone who wants to watch the process is welcome to attend the recount.

    When will all votes be counted?

    The process of counting results takes place at the polls immediately after they close. An ongoing process, where the moderator announces the results publicly after they have been tallied and reconciled. Any member of the public can observe this process.

    Foreign Secretary David Scanlan expects polling stations to announce the results on the evening of the election or until the early hours of the following morning.

    However, the national presidential election results may not be announced on election night. Polls show the election is very close between Harris and Trump, and in some states counting votes and certifying the results could take days or even weeks.

    Vaseline
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