New Hampshire Poll Watchers/Poll Challengers

The following info was provided to Trump supporters who want to become trained poll watchers / challengers. You can sign up to be an official Poll Watcher on Election Day, Nov 3, or to be an watcher during the Absentee Ballot votes activity happening Oct. 31 (Sat.).

Instructions for becoming a poll watcher/challenger:

1) First, we're asked to text our availability (hours on election day), our location, email, and phone number to:

603-874-1459

2) They will send you an email to access Sign-Up Genius, and you can scroll down and find a nearby NH town or city and a list of various times to select, to volunteer to "poll watch."

3) A 13 minute Training video to become a poll watcher is completed online (a link is sent to your email).

I picked polling places in Manchester, since I suspect more vote fraud will occur in the larger cities.

Many have signed up to observe next Tuesday - there are still many open times that need to be filled. A good way to help out, and make a difference. And, it's NOT TOO LATE to get involved!

“Manchester may have its own “rules.”.”
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I’m sure they vary. I would be suprised if they let people just challenge votes without having some special knowledge of a violation -

I mean if your next door neighbor Bill has been bragging about voting at 12 different polls that day and he shows up to vote at the poll you’re at, you’d have a solid reason.

If you just don’t like the looks of someone and you challenge their right to vote because you had a “bad feeling”, you’ll probably going to be disappointed.

At any rate watch your own six - nobody else will to bail you out, literally or figuratively.

Going out to do poll watching or challenging in New Hampshire is a worthwhile activity, but less important than in other states since the election officials are required by law to be a bipartisan group of people.

In New Hampshire any member of the public can observe the election in process from the public areas inside of the polling places. Due to COVID-19 that process may be somewhat restricted in some towns where the polling places don't have much room. You should be ready to cooperate with the local election officials, and bring your mask.

Needless to say any campaign related clothing, or comments, are not allowed inside a polling place.

Political parties can appoint challengers who are observers with a bit more authority. In particular, they can challenge the right of a voter to vote without being a resident of the town or polling place community. So get a party appointment and bring it with you to the polling place if possible.

If you are going to be a challenger and actually challenge voters you need to have a solid understanding of New Hampshire election law and be prepared with data and information. In order to challenge a voter you have to be able to swear out an affidavit stating the reasons that the voter should be prevented from voting. Doing so without a basis is a crime, as is voting when you are not authorized to do so. So this is really a job for well prepared people, typically attorneys who have already researched particular voters and have their challenges prepared in advance.

The more common job of poll watchers is to monitor who votes based on listening to the voters say their names at check in. Typically campaigns use that information to guide their election day get out the vote efforts. That is very helpful work.

Monitoring absentee ballot pre-processing is also helpful. You can get the names of anyone whose ballot is rejected for some reason and then relay that information to party folks who can contact the voters. Note that pre-processing can happen on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Monday.

Bring binoculars, the rats are going to use Covid safe distancing to keep watchers from being able to see them in playing games with the absentee signatures.

Bad idea. Anything that looks like an attempt to see what is on election documents, like affidavits, voter registrations, or ballots is likely to get you removed from the polling place. New Hampshire law requires that observers maintain specific distances from various voting activities for just that reason.

I would be surprised if they let people just challenge votes without having some special knowledge of a violation

You are correct. Before even thinking about actually challenging a voter you should read the NH Secretary of State's guidelines for election officials. It has a good summary of the law. The person taking your challenge has studied the same book, and is likely to be an attorney.

Here is the book.

Read the section on challenges starting at page 245. Study the form on page 283 and make sure you have solid evidence to support any challenges.

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