By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Attorney General Gordon MacDonald issued a cease and desist order against the NH Republican State Committee Friday saying their recent absentee ballot request mailers violate state law.
The order says the Republican State Committee mailing Aug. 20 didn’t contain the required language and may have confused voters shortly before the Sept. 8 primary into thinking they were requesting an absentee ballot for both the primary and general election when it was only for the general election Nov. 3.
The mailer also didn’t include language allowing the voter to ask whether he or she wanted a Democrat or Republican ballot for the state primary. It also didn’t contain the language that any person who witnesses and assists a voter with a disability shall print and sign his or her name.
MacDonald gave the Republican State Committee until Monday at the close of business to submit a written plan as to how it will remedy the situation.
“The State Committee’s choice to publish this defective form more than two weeks before the September State Primary may cause voter confusion and frustration,” the cease and desist order states.
“Voters may complete the purported absentee ballot forms believing they will receive absentee ballots for the state primary only to discover that the forms are only a request for absentee ballots for the November general election.”
The attorney general’s investigator Richard Tracy was looking into a report by the Republican State Committee’s lawyer, Bryan Gould, claiming the Meredith town clerk was rejecting the GOP’s absentee ballot requests.
Tracy interviewed Meredith Town Clerk Kerri Parker who told him an assistant clerk spoke with the voter who was concerned the State Committee form didn’t contain the exact content mandated by Chapter 14 otherwise known as HB 1266. The new law was enacted to streamline absentee ballots, especially for people concerned about going to the polls because of COVID-19.
“The assistant clerk did not turn the voter away, but instead provided the voter with the official absentee ballot application form published by the Secretary of State’s office. The voter completed this form and successfully obtained an absentee ballot,” the cease and desist order states.
Messages seeking comment from Attorney Gould and the NH Republican State Committee were not returned Friday.
Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said it is important for people to know they can hand deliver their absentee ballot to their polling place if they choose and get answers to their questions on the Secretary of State’s website or by calling their town or city clerk.
“We want to make sure people vote,” Edwards said.
If people have any questions about whether or not their town or city has received their ballot, they should call and determine the status of their vote by Tuesday or Wednesday. The state primary is Sept. 8 and the general election is Nov. 3. https://sos.nh.gov/
The cease and desist order says communication was examined between Assistant Secretary of State David Scanlan and the Republican State Committee’s executive director Elliot Gault indicating Scanlan had said the mailer was “good to go.”
Scanlan does not have the authority to waive provisions of the law, the order states.
“Additionally given the already heavy burden on clerks offices around the state due to changes in the election laws based on COVID-19, clerks do not have the resources to reach out to each voter who uses the State Committee’s absentee ballot request form to confirm whether he or she wants a state primary ballot and which party’s ballot he or she wants,” the order states.
“In light of our finding that the State Committee violated RSA 657:4, II-a by its failure to produce a complete facsimile of the absentee ballot application form, the State Committee is hereby ordered to CEASE AND DESIST any and all activities which violate this provision in the future. Furthermore the State Committee shall CEASE and DESIST from publishing any other absentee ballot application forms for the 2020 election cycle unless they are accurate and complete facsimiles of the language included in HB 1266.”
Associate Attorney General Edwards said her office is still working on the Aug. 6 State Committee mailings for voter registration applications that were incorrectly addressed to be returned to Durham regardless of where the voter lived. They were sent to 50,000 people.
During the week of Aug. 24, Edwards’ office retrieved a total of 482 postcards from the Durham Post Office, which were separated by municipality, recorded, and mailed to 154 town and city clerks for processing. To date, the Attorney General’s Office has correctly delivered 2,533 postcards to 197 town and city clerks. Her office will seek reimbursement of its expenses from the NH Republican State Committee.
The Attorney General’s Office will continue to retrieve and deliver these postcards as long as any are received at the Durham Post Office and review the facts and circumstances leading to the incorrect address. When that review is completed, a public report will be issued, Edwards said.
Edwards is also investigating absentee ballot requests sent to a Dover man to be returned to the town clerk in Exeter, to a Concord man to be returned to the New Ipswich clerk, and to a Pennsylvania man who never lived in New Hampshire to be returned to the city clerk in Rochester, N.H.
