New Hampshire voter rolls were a mess. As evidenced by 250,000 names having to be removed in early 2021. With close to 1 in 4 names not belonging on our lists, it was time to take a deep dive. But not just at the state level. But locally as well. Four Hollis, NH, residents did just that. Hollis, NH, with a US Census 2020 population of 8342, had a preposterous 7600 plus names on their rolls. This is a simple absurdity because the school population of those 17 and under was larger than the difference between those of voting age on the list and the total population.
We decided to reach out to our Select Board Chair, David Petry, to have a friendly and information-sharing meeting. We met and spoke for well over an hour, presenting some of our information and concerns, which included both voter roll data and election machine information. He asked us for two weeks to consider the information. Two weeks turned 3, then 4,5,6,7, and into 8 weeks. Despite repeated attempts to reach him, we had no success. We wrote to him that we were moving on, and he finally replied that he didn’t know we were working with any timeline. We had reached a dead end.
Next up, we approached the Supervisor of the Checklist to offer them information, and numbers, but more importantly, volunteerism, donations for perhaps laptops, and we wanted to ask for their understanding of the process so we could learn why our town numbers made little sense, because clearly the numbers did not add up. These are people we have coached with, gone to church with. We have no bone to pick between us. So what happened next was quite interesting.
We were read a prepared statement in their publicly held Supervisor of the Checklist meeting that attacked us and our inquiry. So, a quandary now, the numbers are way off, and the elected officials not only don’t want to correct it, they don’t even want to hear about the obvious. We concluded that we would have to find the information on our own, rather than taking the easy way. Instead of being transparent, this board was combative.
It didn’t take long before we soon found our elected Checklist folks didn’t even keep meeting minutes, which are legally required. So now we have an RSA violation. We now have not only bad voter roll data but we have political office holders not wanting important information, not wanting help, nor donations for efficiency, but have no meeting minutes, no public required records in the town clerks office ( actually hidden in a file cabinet in a publicly accessed hallway not even in the same building as the Town Clerk but worse no sunshine on accuracy and accountability.
We visited with the Town Administrator about the matter, who was of little help and ultimately had to return to the Hollis Select Board because (we thought) they would be concerned with the performance of the Checklist office. Boy, were we wrong. The board was unhappy to learn that the Checklist office, which taxpayers fund, had not only poor data but also failed to keep minutes.
One of the issues that surprised us when dealing with the Town Administrator and the Select Board was, very surprisingly, a simple comprehension of basic data points for them was a challenge. For example, when we approached our Town Administrator, we were asked not to use the US Census baseline of Town of Hollis population but instead to use the Town’s own Census numbers for population as the baseline. We looked at that number, which was much lower than the US census, and of course, that meant our voter rolls were even more preposterous. I recall being quite shocked that the Town Admin would attempt to use data that made the Hollis Supervisor’s Checklist voter roll data even more ludicrous, but there it was. It was at that point that we knew we were dealing with an additional problem—that of comprehension.
Stifled in town as to how to get correct information and transparency, we met with our State Senator Kevin Avard. He spoke with Secretary of State Scanlan, who, upon listening, asked to meet with us. We met with him, and after that meeting, he decided another meeting was required, and that would include a representative from the AG office. Ultimately, both felt the need to visit Hollis and meet with Hollis officials to correct them and give them advice on how to move forward to properly do their job.
This is unheard of for a Secretary of State to have to visit a town office like this. The reader should be aware that elected officials throughout New Hampshire are provided training through the municipal county association, free of charge, and we are ready and willing to provide tutelage. As we soon learning, we seem to know more about the checklist office than the elected officials, some of whom have been there close to 10 years.
Along the way, there were two major developments. We acquired a list of over 500 names of individuals who contacted the US post office to notify of a change of address out of the town of Hollis. And also we learned about the state in its 10-year purge, which cleaned up close to 1400 names off the Hollis rolls (close to 250,000 statewide in a population including not voter age of 1.4 million).
Remember, we had over 7600 on our rolls, but soon, with forced job performance and public and state pressure clean-ups, we were down to an amazing 6007 people on our rolls, and astoundingly, that is only 117 names over those that voted in our 2020 election. That is a 98.0 % That is huge, mainly because of the unfettered usage and known abuse of absentee ballots nationwide.
Something significant needs to be addressed here as to why it wasn’t just the numbers that alarmed us. Along the way, while we pursued this, one of the Hollis Checklist officers unexpectedly admitted to us that they knew their own rolls were wildly inflated, but worse, they were knowingly not sending out the required 30-day letters. Sending out 30-day letters is a huge and most basic part of the job of a checklist office holder, and it is a considerable tool they apparently chose to ignore. Sadly, despite this awareness, they were still signing off documents to the town and the state, we would assume under some conditions of legality or possibility of perjury (?) that our voter rolls on the town of Hollis were even remotely accurate.
So, having in a friendly manner offered assistance, volunteerism, and information, we were rejected with a degree of animosity from them, and we were left with no alternative but to push, push, push and push to get to the bottom of things. Having witnessed how resistant for whatever their own reasons were to doing their job was and recognizing that the state of 1.4 million should never have anything close to a 25% inaccuracy rate we felt it was essential to get a full or partial statewide solution that we felt would immediately help the state and locally and that would be to havevthe statewide every ten years cleanup be done more frequently.
We drafted a bill to do it every two years, it came close to passing in 2024, but the compromise clean-up bill for doing it every 4 years fell short in the House. But we were not deterred, and we resubmitted our bill in 2025. This year, it gained significant momentum. We a willing and enthusiastic NH Senate and House that comprised on our bill to clean up the rolls each annd every year starting in 2026. Governor Ayotte agreed and signed Senate Bill 221 to implement yearly state voter clean-up with a five-year look-back. This will significantly help keep the rolls cleaner.
What started as an attempt to inform local leaders that the numbers didn’t add up soon became a far bigger issue than we ever could’ve imagined. What was initially a local issue affecting a group of average citizens led them to seek a broader, statewide solution.
Cleaner, more accurate voter rolls are a victory for all, and doing anything to prevent that is quite simply un-American.
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