Declare: Polls typically find that Americans trust elections run in their own backyard much more than those in other communities and states. What should the average American who doesn’t live in your backyard . . . know about elections in your state?
Secretary David Scanlan: New Hampshire has a long history of running really good elections, with results that are reported accurately at the end of the election.
In New Hampshire, our election process is decentralized, and what that means is that the elections are run locally by locally elected officials that run their own polling place. So the people that live in the community get to elect their neighbors, their friends, and the individuals that they know to actually conduct the elections in their hometown. And that builds confidence. The individuals running the elections are individuals that are trusted by the community.
And then in New Hampshire, we have a process where the results are reported at each polling place, and voters can follow the results that are then reported at the polling place to what is reported to the Secretary of State’s office. They can see the documents that the Secretary of State receives to match them to what was reported on the night of the election, and they can follow the math all the way through to the final declaration and certification of results.
Declare: Granting that there isn’t a single “American election system” — what is your opinion of American elections, in general?
Scanlan: I think American elections are great. Our Constitution puts the responsibility of conducting elections on the states, and so each state has come up with their own election system that works well for that state.
In New Hampshire, we have a system that dates back centuries. It goes back to our colonial roots, and many of the practices that our Founding Fathers created in an election process still exist today. And given the fact that we’re celebrating our 250th anniversary as a nation and we’re still using the same foundational processes for elections should give people confidence.
Declare: Since the COVID year, congressional Democrats, congressional Republicans, and President Trump have taken turns trying to create election policy. From your perspective — what could the federal government provide that could actually help you do your job?
Scanlan: Well, the states really do a good job running the elections, and the federal government can help by providing resources that support the underlying foundations of those processes. We live in a technical world now, and so there are a lot of concerns about cybersecurity, foreign actors trying to come in and have an impact on our elections. That’s where we need federal help.
We need federal help to protect our national boundaries so that we can conduct fair elections and things like that. When there was the pandemic, the federal government did a great job funding money to the states so that they could conduct elections under a major health crisis.
That was an important role for the federal government, and it’s just support. It’s general support. Leave the actual processes up to the states.