New Hampshire election workers are under threat -- and they're standing up [View all]
New Hampshire election workers are under threat — and they're standing up
Phillip Martin GBH News
Phillip Martin
October 23, 2024
https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2024-10-23/new-hampshire-election-workers-are-under-threat-and-theyre-standing-up
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In her office across the street from the New Hampshire Capitol, Olivia Zink shuffles through papers recently to reveal a letter she’s received from an irate neighbor in Franklin who supports former President Donald Trump and was questioning the integrity of elections.
“What’s scary about this letter is that this letter says that we’re guilty of breaking the law. It says that we processed absentee ballots incorrectly because they have to be notarized. But absentee ballots do not need to be notarized. They need to be signed,’’ she said. “I think that that’s concerning when election workers receive these letters. I mean, you can see, it’s hand-addressed to me.”
Zink is the executive director at Open Democracy, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit focused on campaign finance reform and the freedom to vote. The organization was founded by Doris Haddock, better known as Granny D, who walked 3,200 miles across the United States in 1999 to champion voter rights.
Now Zink is concerned those rights are facing strong political headwinds — and people who administer elections in New Hampshire are deeply affected. Threats have grown so ominous, she says, that many poll workers have resigned or retired, leaving about 40 communities short of staff for the Nov. 5 presidential election.
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