Election reform 'marriage' ends in divorce
Jun. 22—CONCORD — The marriage of a new election information portal with a grant program to help cities and towns replace aging voting machines ended in divorce due to irreconcilable differences between House and Senate Republican leaders Thursday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman James Gray, R-Rochester, had championed a proposed new portal in Secretary of State David Scanlan's office that would allow citizens to register to vote more easily online, to update voter information or to request absentee ballots.
House Election Laws Committee Chairman Ross Berry, R-Rochester, lobbied to use some of the $12.8 million in federal Help America Vote Act grants to permit cities and towns to apply for the purchase of new voting machines in advance of the 2024 election.
Berry put both concepts together in hopes that as a package they could become a reality.
"It is perfectly reasonable to tap into the fund to help people vote to purchase machines to help people vote," Berry said.
Neither side would fully accept the other chamber's plan.
"If you aren't going to pass the Senate version then the bill is going to die," Gray told Berry at one point Tuesday.
Berry shot back, "So if the Senate doesn't get what it wants?"
Gray answered, "The Senate passed a version, the House decided to put in what I would consider a poison pill to that bill and you are going to reap what you sow."
Secretary of State Scanlan said state law does not allow his office to spend more than 1/12 of the HAVA Fund in a single year.
"This is not a static fund where there is several million dollars sitting in the account doing nothing. We are using the money that fund earns and then some to maintain the programs we have in place," Scanlan said.
Upcoming uses include updating the state's centralized election database and a third generation of voting equipment that is more accessible for those with disabilities, Scanlan said.
The state has used HAVA money for specific projects such as $1 million to install cybersecurity safeguards prior to the last election, Scanlan said.
"I would prefer to do it that way than to establish a grant program that could be very costly to administer and could possibly drain the account," Scanlan said.
State on 'fast track' to replace machines
The state remains on a "fast track" for the Ballot Law Commission to select one or two vendors to supply cities and towns with a replacement to the old AccuVote voting machines that have been in use for more than three decades, Scanlan said.
Teams of state officials, local officials, voters and legislators on Aug. 2 will test out the machines marketed by the four finalist vendors in a public demonstration, he said.
"Once towns are able to start purchasing those devices, there is not going to be an immediate cutoff of using the AccuVote machine. We will allow for a transition period," Scanlan said.
Berry said getting new machines would cut long lines at the polls.
State Sen. Keith Murphy, R-Manchester, said new voters and those without proper ID who have to fill out affidavits cause those lines and the election portal would help reduce them.
State Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, later tried to meld the two ideas with a new plan with the election portal that would also allow the secretary of state to use only "surplus" HAVA money to reimburse cities and towns that replace voting machines.
Berry missed a follow-up meeting of the panel and his replacement, House Deputy Speaker Steve Smith, R-Charlestown, rejected the final plan that had the backing of the other six on the conference committee.
"They came to me with something new totally out of the blue, anyone can register to vote online and the secretary of state has the full authority without any role for the Legislature," Smith said during an interview.
"What if I am from Zimbabwe, can I sign up to vote? Sorry, I'm out."
Smith stressed that both concepts, the election portal (HB 463) and the voting machines (HB 447) are contained in separate bills to be studied further by Berry's committee this summer and fall.
"The concepts remain alive; they just aren't happening next week," Smith said.
McKenzie St. Germain, director of the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, said her group was "deeply disappointed and discouraged" by the outcome.
"This legislation passed both chambers with strong bipartisan majorities and gained the support of Secretary of State Scanlan, yet the bipartisan compromise between the House and Senate could not move forward without unanimous consent," St. Germain said.
Lucas Meyer, co-founder of the liberal interest group 603 Forward, vowed to press for these reforms.
"To be crystal clear, this bill could have improved voter confidence and helped communities purchase urgently needed new ballot counting machines," Meyer said.
"The pursuit of free and fair elections is the bedrock of our democracy, but voters young and old have been let down by foolish inter-party politics."
