A conservative N.H. group is trying to ban voting machines in 22 towns – The Boston Globe

Members of the group believe machine counts are “hackable” and encouraged residents from around the state to gather the 25 signatures required to put a warrant article on their town’s agenda.

They insist hand counting is more transparent and accurate, although research shows the opposite is true, including a 2012 study from New Hampshire and a 2018 study in Wisconsin.

While the far right and conspiracy theorists have taken up calls for hand counting in recent years, experts warn it’s a bad idea and research has found machine counts to be more accurate than hand counting, which can introduce human error.

Voting rights groups in New Hampshire are opposing efforts to ban voting machines, which they said would detract from the safety and efficiency of elections and place a burden on local election officials.

“We know that the equipment is trustworthy,” said McKenzie St. Germain, campaign director at the New Hampshire Voting Rights Campaign. She said previous efforts to ban voting machines at town meetings began after the 2020 election, although they have been unsuccessful in prior years.

“If we were to remove machines from especially these larger towns, and move entirely to hand counting, we are getting rid of equipment that is accurate and trustworthy and instead moving to a process that has more room for potential error,” she said.

It’s up to each community to decide whether to continue allowing the use of machines or to ban them and require hand counts. There are 103 towns that hand count, and 135 that use machines, according to data compiled in 2022 from the New Hampshire Voting Rights Campaign.

The New Hampshire Patriot Hub is a conservative, faith-oriented group that focuses on liberty and the constitution.

While the group said its efforts are bipartisan, on its Facebook page members share their support of Donald Trump and events including one on Jan. 6, 2024 called “J6 – It could happen to you” to show support for those charged and imprisoned related to the Jan. 6. 2021, attack on the Capitol.

In an April Facebook post, the group announced that Brenda Towne would lead an initiative on election integrity, an issue she took up following the 2020 election. Towne did not return a request for comment on this story.

On her LinkedIn profile, Towne lists her job as an independent director for Web Industries, a company based in Marlborough, Mass. A visit to orphanages in India reportedly inspired her to fund an orphanage, work she told Foster’s Daily Democrat in 2017 would “honor God,” after she grew dissatisfied with her corporate job.

One of the initiative’s main goals, according to the group’s website, was to remove ballot counting devices and instead create local teams that would hand count ballots. “Voting Machines must go!” a call to action on the website read. “Hand count with secured paper ballots only!”

In a Jan. 26 blog post, the group laid out its strategy to recruit residents from around the state by targeting over 50 towns and aiming for each town to receive the 25 resident signatures required to add a warrant article to the town meeting ballot.

The group hoped to leverage the support of Mike Lindell — CEO of MyPillow who has prominently promoted false claims the 2020 election was stolen — to energize New Hampshire voters and get the word out.

The group also put forward the language that now appears on many of the town’s warrant articles: “‘All voting shall be hand counted only, rather than by use of optical scanning or any other types of programmable electronic counting devices.’”

It goes on to state that, if approved, towns will immediately stop using all electronic voting machines.

“Enjoy this moment because I truly believe we are making history,” Towne said during an online March 7 training. “Imagine if we’re successful in New Hampshire and we start rolling these towns to hand count towns and removing the machines. It is truly the shot heard around the world.”

She directed people to removethemachinesnh.com, another website promoting a ban on machine counting devices.

The Globe verified that in at least 22 towns, petition efforts successfully gathered the 25 signatures of local residents required to put language proposing a ban on the town meeting agenda. The warrant articles require a simple majority in order to pass, although in several towns, including Campton, Sandown, and Newington, among others, the selectmen registered their opposition to the effort.

Walpole is among the 22 towns where residents will vote on whether to ban voting machines. The town has been using AccuVote machines since 2014, according to town officials.

Meghan Hansson, the town clerk, said the effort to ban voting machines came as a surprise.

“This is just totally new,” she said. “We had no idea the petition warrant was going to be submitted until the day before (the deadline).”

She said there have never been any issues using the voting machines, and complaints haven’t been brought to her attention. Without them, Hansson said she foresees issues related to human error and she said it could be hard to recruit enough people to help hand count.

The town has budgeted money to purchase a new machine, as the AccuVote machines approach the end of their useful life, according to Hansson. As the state begins transitioning to new machines, the company that services AccuVote machines, LHS Associates, has warned it cannot guarantee the machines will work through 2024, as there are limited available parts. That purchase will now have to wait until after the town decides if it is banning voting machines or not, according to Hansson.

Sarah Downing, Walpole’s town administrator, said she verified that all those who signed the petition were Walpole residents.

Here are the towns the Globe has confirmed are considering a ban on voting machines. While many towns hold voting on March 12 for town meeting day, other votes, like petitioned articles, are often held on second date, listed below.

March 12

1. Fitzwilliam, article 29 2. Lincoln, article 31 3. Milan, article 9 (The selectman’s office confirmed the town will vote on a possible ban. No link is included because the town does not put its warrant online.) 4. Sandown, article 19 5. Woodstock, article 24

March 13

6. Brookline, article 29 7. Campton, article 8 8. Meredith, article 20 9. Newbury, article 11 10. Tamworth, article 35 11. Ossipee, article 40 12. Plymouth, article 10

March 16

13. Brentwood, article 13 14. Bristol article 9 15. Hollis, article 17 16. Loudon, article 20 17. Newington, article 15 18. Strafford, article 33 19. Stratham, article 15 20. Walpole, article 12 21. Madison, article 28

March 21

22. Hopkinton/Contoocook, article 14

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.