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Moderators, clerks back bill to open absentee outer envelopes up to a week early to spot and cure defects
Summary
Rep. Gary Daniels introduced HB 344 to permit local officials to open absentee ballot outer envelopes up to one week before an election. Moderators and clerks — including large towns that tested the process in 2020 — said preprocessing increases transparency and lets clerks notify voters of curable defects before election day.
Representative Gary Daniels introduced HB 344, a bill to permit the opening of absentee ballot outer envelopes at a polling place up to one week before an election so officials can inspect affidavits and notify voters of curable defects prior to election day.
Moderators who ran preprocessing in 2020 described the operations and the safeguards. Peter Basileiro (Milford moderator) and Jonathan Kipp (Londonderry moderator) said their towns opened outer envelopes in a public, noticed process and kept ballots inside the inner envelope. Basileiro described how pre‑processing allowed clerks to contact voters with incomplete affidavits and thereby save votes that otherwise would have been rejected. Kipp noted preprocessing provided a calmer setting for public observation, opportunity for voter education, and no security problems in his experience.
Advocates for voting access (Open Democracy, New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights) supported the bill for transparency and to reduce late‑night election work by moderators and volunteers. Municipal officials emphasized that pre‑processing requires public notice, physical security for ballots, and clear procedures for returning preprocessed materials to secure storage until election day.
Moderators and clerks said preprocessing should be a single, posted session in the week before the election and that ballots received after the preprocessing session would still be processed on election day. Witnesses described practices to secure processed materials, including lockup in municipal vaults and law enforcement escort in their towns.
No committee final action appears in the transcript; witnesses encouraged the committee to adopt clear steps for notice, security and a single pre‑processing day.
