House Election Committee advances, tables and retains a package of election bills including hand-count rules and ballot preservation

The House Election Law Committee met in executive session and took final or provisional actions on a slate of bills about absentee voting, voter identification, chain-of-custody for ballots and electronic ballot media.

The committee placed several bills on the consent calendar after unanimous or lopsided roll-call votes, retained some bills for further drafting over the summer and defeated one measure to repeal voter-identification requirements. Lawmakers also debated an amendment that would permit town clerks or selectmen to order supplemental hand counts in some circumstances before ultimately withdrawing that amendment and retaining the bill for further work.

Why it matters: the package addresses multiple technical and procedural aspects of how New Hampshire elections are administered — from what ID may be accepted when requesting ballots to how voting-machine memory devices are stored after an election. Those provisions affect election officials, town clerks and voters and could change operational procedures ahead of municipal and federal elections.

Major outcomes

- HB 418 (eligibility for absentee voting): The committee found the bill "inexpedient to legislate" (ITL). Vote: 16–0; the item was placed on the consent calendar. Representative Wherry explained the subcommittee consolidated similar bills and recommended ITL.

- HB 420 (chain of custody for ballots): The committee voted ITL, 16–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 423 (signage on public property adjacent to private property): The committee voted ITL, 17–1; placed on the consent calendar. Representative Wood said committee members had concerns about the bill’s wording and potential constitutional issues about state speech on state property.

- HB 574 (background checks for private companies and contractors who program or maintain New Hampshire voting machines): The committee voted ITL, 18–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 618 (verification of out-of-state driver’s licenses using the central voter-registration database): The committee voted ITL, 18–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 684 (prohibition on using student ID cards to obtain ballots): The committee voted ITL, 18–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 686 (require identification when requesting an absentee ballot): The committee voted to retain the bill for further work, 18–0.

- HB 160 (pre-election checklist contents): The committee voted ITL, 18–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 289 (domicile qualifications for voting): The committee voted to retain the bill, 18–0.

- HB 323 (require presentation of government-issued photographic ID to vote): The committee voted to retain the bill, 18–0.

- HB 693 (procedures permitting hand counting of ballots / supplemental hand counts): Representative C initially moved "ought to pass" and then proposed an amendment that would have clarified when and how hand counts could occur. After questions about whether town clerks or selectmen who were also candidates could touch ballots and how the amendment would interact with existing law, the sponsor withdrew the amendment and withdrew the "ought to pass" motion; the committee then voted to retain the bill for further work, 18–0. Representative Newsom raised concerns that selectmen or clerks who appear on ballots should not handle ballots, and Representative C said existing provisions prevent ballot-handling by candidates.

- HB 590 (cooperative school board election method; amendment and retention discussion): The committee withdrew an amendment, discussed whether the change would invalidate existing cooperative agreements, and ultimately retained the bill for further drafting, 18–0.

- HB 385 (reestablishing voter-identification exceptions / related to last year’s HB 1569 litigation): A motion to pass as amended failed, 8–10. The committee then voted to find the bill inexpedient to legislate (ITL), 10–8; the majority report will be filed by Representative Weary and the minority report by Representative Lane.

- HB 412 (elections and appointments to fill vacancies of local cooperative school boards): The committee voted ITL, 18–0; placed on the consent calendar.

- HB 217 (absentee ballots; clarifications for detainees/correctional facilities): The committee voted ought to pass, 10–8. Members discussed aligning language with statutes that already provide for nursing-home voters and extending similar affidavit/notary procedures where appropriate.

- HB 281 (checklist format; secretary of state language cleanups): The committee voted to retain the bill to reconcile language with the secretary of state’s request, 17–0.

- HB 341 (require the secretary of state to verify certain voter records before each election): The committee voted to retain the bill, 17–0.

- HB 270 (preservation of electronic ballot-counting devices / memory devices): After considering and adopting an amendment that clarifies the term "electronic ballot counting device" and the phrase "programmed memory device," the committee voted ought to pass as amended. The adopted amendment clarified several lines and exempted extra programmed memory cards that were produced for testing but not used in the election. The final committee vote on HB 270 as amended was 17–0; the bill will be placed on the consent calendar as ought to pass as amended. Members discussed the federal preservation schedule (22 months for federal contests; 60 days for strictly local contests) and directed that the secretary of state may provide implementation detail for certain legacy devices (for example, AccuVote memory cards).

What lawmakers said

- Vice Chairman Quayle, opening the session as acting chair, said the subcommittee had consolidated several measures and expected to reach broad agreement: "Representative Lane and I discussed a number of these bills and we we think we can probably achieve a consensus." (acting chairman comment made while opening the first executive session.)

- Representative Wherry, explaining why the subcommittee recommended ITL on multiple items: "This was one of the bills before the subcommittee... the subcommittee felt it was worthwhile to render it inexpedient to legislate" for bills consolidated with others.

- Representative Newsom, during debate on hand counts, asked: "What if the town clerk or various selectmen are on the ballot? They're basically getting a recount for free at that point, and they'd have their hands on the ballots with their names on it." Representative C replied that existing provisions bar candidates from touching ballots during counts.

Narrowly contested measures and next steps

The committee’s most controversial session concerned HB 385 (repeal/cleanups related to last year’s ID law). An initial motion to pass as amended failed on an 8–10 vote; the committee then voted 10–8 to find the bill inexpedient to legislate and assigned majority/minority authors for the committee report.

Several bills with unanimous or near-unanimous votes were placed on the consent calendar; others were retained for further drafting and negotiation over the summer and fall. The committee chair asked members with outstanding committee reports to submit them promptly.

Ending note: Committee members signaled intent to continue work on retained bills and to reconvene in November to finalize changes. Several of the retained bills focus on technical fixes requested by the secretary of state’s office or clarification of how new statutory language interfaces with existing RSA provisions.