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Committee Hears Support for Allowing Preprocessing of Absentee Ballots and Removing Outer Envelope for Hand-Delivered Ballots
Summary
Supporters including town clerks and voting-rights groups told the committee Senate Bill 218 would let clerks open absentee outer envelopes before Election Day to verify signatures and give voters a chance to cure mistakes, and remove outer envelopes for ballots hand-delivered to clerks.
Supporters of Senate Bill 218 told the House Election Law Committee that allowing municipalities to pre-process absentee ballots — opening outer envelopes to verify signatures in the days before Election Day — would speed election day operations and allow clerks to notify voters of defects so ballots could be cured.
Kaylee Estradio of Open Democracy told the committee that pre-processing ‘‘saved time on election day and allowed voters time to cure their ballots’’ when it was done in 2020. She said clerks and moderators supported the change in prior elections.
Senator James Gray, sponsor of SB 218, said the bill would allow moderators or their designee to open absentee ballot outer envelopes during the four days before an election with public notice of time and place. He said the stated purpose was to allow signature or envelope errors to be corrected before election day and to reduce delays on Election Day.
Moderators and municipal clerks who testified, including Tina Guilford (Derry town clerk), described the logistical benefits and concerns. Guilford said Derry had tried several polling configurations over successive elections; removing the outer envelope for ballots hand-delivered to clerks would make it easier to cure envelope problems for those voters.
Opponents were few at the hearing; the New Hampshire Municipal Association and town clerks provided operational details. Deputy Secretary Hennessy told the committee the secretary’s office supported measures that aid clerks and reduce long lines but urged coordination so that statutory and manual procedures were clear.
The committee closed the public hearing on SB 218 after receiving written and online comments and recessed. No formal committee vote was taken at the session.
