Croft Wins Democrat's Merrimack County Sheriff Primary: Watch

CONCORD, NH — The former police chief of Boscawen who works as the county's current diversion program director has won the Democrat's primary for sheriff of Merrimack County.

After a recount last week, David Croft of Salisbury was declared the winner by the New Hampshire Secretary of State's Office by a 220-vote margin. Croft received 6,744 votes, besting Keith Mitchell, the former deputy police chief of Concord who retired in August 2019 and now works at the superior court, who had 6,524 votes. A third candidate, Michael Labrecque, the police chief of Canterbury, received 3,792 votes.

The officials results in the primary only shifted a handful of votes when compared to the unofficial results. Croft gained 12 votes during the recount while Mitchell only gained four. Labrecque lost six votes. According to the official results, 180 voters scattered write-ins — including 34 cast in Hopkinton and 50 in Concord.

Croft won many of the smaller communities around the county with Mitchell taking Pembroke, his hometown, as well as Bow, by decent margins. But Mitchell only beat Croft in Concord by six votes. All three candidates also received write-in votes on the GOP ballot.

Dennis Crawford of Warner, a sheriff's deputy who has worked for the county for more than three decades, faces off against Croft in the general election after easily beating James Valiquet, Bradford's police chief, in the Republican primary by a more than two-to-one margin. Valiquet won Bradford and New London while Crawford won all the other communities in the county.

Candidates Thank Voters

Mitchell told his supporters on Facebook after the recount he was disappointed with coming up so short but was still proud of the turnout — especially after winning 11 of the county's communities.

"The support was heartfelt and overwhelming and most importantly, greatly appreciated," he said. "From friends, neighbors, family and colleagues I cannot thank you enough for the sacrifices you made on my behalf."

Mitchell added, whoever won the general election, needed to be held accountable during the next two years, since there were several issues facing the office. He also did not rule out another run in 2022.

"My plan for any future run for sheriff could very well be determined by the events of the next two years," he said.

Labrecque, who previously worked in Hooksett before being hired in Canterbury after the resignation of John Laroche, who was charged with sexual assault of a girl but was ultimately found not guilty of the charges, thanked his supporters and said he would continue to lead the Canterbury Police Department with "transparency, respect, integrity, professionalism and honor."

Labrecque said, "I enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone. Congratulations to all the candidates who are moving forward to the general election."

On Facebook on election night, after about two hours and 15 minutes of vote tabulations, Croft wrote, "Thank you to all voters! Especially the cities and towns we won," while listing 12 communities.

Warning From County Attorney

Last week, Croft also received a warning from Robin Davis, the county attorney for Merrimack County, to abide by the state's campaign laws after the revelation of a number of issues connected to his successful effort.

Some of those issues included signs without proper disclaimers, an issue previously reported by Patch before the primary, as well as sign placements outside of organizations doing business with the county diversion program and a post on the diversion's Facebook site, the day of the election, mentioning that it was primary voting day and Croft was running. All of the issues were raised by an anonymous source who filed complaints with both Davis and investigators at the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office Election Law Unit — which issued Croft repeated warnings about the sign violations.

After the warnings, Croft's campaign began placing stickers on the signs — but the ink on the stickers washed off many of them, according to a visual inspection during the primary campaign on signs seen in Bow, Concord, Loudon, and Pembroke. The campaign then wrote disclaimers directly onto the signs.

Just before the primary, Croft told Patch he printed new signs with the proper disclaimer.

In an email to Patch and the anonymous source, Davis said Croft was "reminded" he needed to comply with all election laws.

The post on Facebook, she said, was put up by a "young member of the diversion staff who did not realize the conflict of interest it presented." The post has since been removed, she said.

Croft did not reply to email about the issue before post time Monday.

Recounts Did Not Change Results

For the 2020 state primary, six recounts were requested by candidates with one held by the state to determine who won the Republican Stafford County commissioner's write-in race.

New Hampshire does not have automatic recounts, according to Bill Gardner, the secretary of state. If the unofficial results of any race are within 1 percent, candidates can request recounts for a filing fee of between $10 for state representative candidates and $500 for governor, Senate, or the presidency. The cost of recounts goes up from there based on the separation between the winning and losing campaigns — a presidential candidate can request a recount, as an example, if the separation the winner and the next candidate is between 2 or 3 percent, for $2,000.

When asked about the historically minor fluctuation of votes during recounts, Gardner said most were human error during hand counts in some of the smaller communities or voter error when filling in the oval.

"It's fair to say that the hand-counted towns tend to have the biggest discrepancies of votes, over the years," he said. "The machines have proved to be incredibly accurate if a voter followed the voting instruction."

Gardner said sometimes, voters circle or underline the name or even put a check next to the name and the machine does not pick up the vote. The standard is the intent of the voter — so during recounts, those circles, checks, and underlines, are counted as going to the candidate.

Gardner, who has been secretary of state since the mid-1970s, estimated there had been close to 600 recounts in the state during that time with countless races decided by single digits. During two other recounts this year, for state representative seats, nine votes and 20 votes separated the winning and losing campaigns. In a multi-community state Senate race, a little more than 60 votes separated the candidates.

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