New Hampshire’s top election official is stressing the system of checks and safeguards in place related to ballot counting devices that will be used to tally votes in Tuesday’s election.
Secretary of State David Scanlan said in a letter this week that the machines are unable to connect to the internet, and are tested for accuracy in each polling location before they are used on Election Day.
Scanlan’s letter comes in response to a demand from 10 New Hampshire House Republicans to conduct further tests on the machines, despite any evidence they have produced inaccurate results. The demand, Scanlan said, “ignores the reams of evidence my office has put forth showing that the two devices used in New Hampshire do not contain network functionality.”
Vote counting machines have been at the center of allegations that they can be hacked or otherwise manipulated. Those claims have been amped up by President Trump, who has tried to sow doubt into their accuracy. In 2023, Fox News was ordered to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by the manufacturer of a ballot counting device.
In New Hampshire, the state’s Ballot Law Commission went through a lengthy and public process to select two machines, manufactured by VotingWorks and Liberty Votes. The units used in New Hampshire do not have any way to connect to other machines — so-called “network functionality” — or to the internet, according to the devices’ manufacturers.
All votes in New Hampshire are cast on paper ballots, ensuring a backup record. Scanlan said there are also audits performed on randomly selected machines immediately following the election. Towns and cities are allowed to use either the approved machines, or count their ballots by hand. State law allows any voter to ask that their ballot be counted by hand.
“The state has always worked to ensure ballot counting devices continue to be secure and reliable,” Scanlan said.
In their letter, the 10 House Republicans said the state has failed to perform adequate inspections of the machines.
“Manufacturer assurances and vendor-sample testing do not substitute for examination of the field units,” the lawmakers said, though state law does not require an individual inspection of the hundreds of individual machines used around the state. Each unit is affixed with a seal to detect any tampering.
The lawmakers also said that a Nashua election official used his own device during the September primary to detect “radio-frequency readings” from one of the machines. This claim came up during a special hearing of the Ballot Law Commission earlier this month, where forensic officials disputed the source of the signals. The presence of those radio waves does not indicate that information is being shared, a cybersecurity expert said.
Scanlan’s response to the letter will likely not end the distrust some residents have of voting machines. His office has engaged in an extensive public campaign to restore confidence in the election process, but doubts persist: A 2024 poll from UNH found 24% of residents — the majority Republican — said voter fraud was a serious problem in the state, with 17% expressing mistrust in an accurate tally.
Across New Hampshire, 110 towns, mostly with smaller populations, continue to count ballots by hand. The decision to use machines is made by local selectboards.
