HB1266

Moderators have a wide variety of duties related to the overall conduct of an election that require them to be able to work inside the roped off area where votes are counted. Examples include allocating and directing other election workers to particular tasks, checking ballot inventories and check-in list totals to evaluate the integrity of the overall process, answering procedural questions from other election workers, and preparing the reports required for elections. Doing these important tasks from outside of the area where the activities are being conducted, or otherwise reducing the moderator's ability to perform their constitutional duty to "receive the votes of all the inhabitants ... sort and count said votes, and make a public declaration thereof, with the name of every person voted for, and the number of votes for each person..." [NH Constitution Article 32] is undesirable. Robert Dezmelyk Moderator, Town of Newton and Sanborn Regional School District

Transparency in vote counting is essential for public trust.