NH Patch Survey: Voters Fear Fraud With Mail-In Voting

CONCORD, NH — More than 61 percent of respondents of an informal survey of Patch readers in New Hampshire said they plan on voting in person, like normal, during the Nov. 3 general election.

The survey results come two weeks before the state's Sept. 8 primary.

The survey, in which 493 readers participated, found only 19 percent were planning on taking advantage of voting by mail. Nearly 16 percent said they would vote via absentee ballot and drop it off at city or town halls while slightly less than 4 percent said they planned on voting by absentee ballot in their town or city hall clerk offices.

One of the reasons so many Granite Staters said there were voting in person was because they do not trust the postal service or the voting by mail process — and fear fraud.

On a scale of 1 to 5, nearly 47 percent of voters picked 1 and said they were not confident that voting by mail would be conducted in a safe manner. Another 29 percent, however, were confident that the election would be safe. Between 7.1 and 8.9 percent picked voted on a scale of 2, 3, or 4 on the safety question.

Just shy of 42 percent, however, were confident, picking a 5, that their ballot would be tabulated by Election Night while 22.5 percent ranked the question with a 1.

More than 61 percent of voters said they had not noticed any slowing of mail delivery in recent months.

Survey respondents, 127, offered various comments about the election and voting by mail.

Some readers questioned the need for the process at all.

"If you can shop in stores in person, you can vote in person," offered one reader while another said, "There is no reason any healthy person cannot put on a mask and go to the polls as usual. It would be no different than going to any supermarket." Another called the idea, "Crazy."

Some questioned how clerks and officials would be able to check who was voting by mail when no identification was shown: "How do you confirm the correct person receives the ballot by mail?," with another adding, "The chain of custody is broken when we vote by mail. Must never allow this to happen in NH or anywhere else; Open to fraud on several levels."

Another questioned whether workers in long-term care facilities would steal the ballots of residents — potentially thousands and thousands of votes that could be miscast or not cast the way the resident chose to vote.

But others said absentee voting had worked for years for people traveling or unable to vote in person even if it is rarely used before so it would not be a problem if more voters used it now. Others said it was a good option to have and allowed both older voters and poll workers to be safe by lowering the number of in-person votes.

Some readers who do not support President Donald Trump made accusations that problems with the postal service were a plot so he could win the election.

"I am concerned that our right to vote during COVID-19 will be taken away by the current administration due to conspiracy theories, false statements, self-interest and/or tampering with the postal officials," one wrote. Another said simply, the president "must go."

Supporters of the president, however, claimed the media was involved in promoting fear to keep the president from winning.

"We can all go back to our lives after President Trump is reelected," one said, while another reader added, "This whole mail thing is obviously intended to create a justification for contesting election results if Trump wins again."

One reader was worried the postal service would be overwhelmed by all the ballots while another suggested looking into a new patent filed by the postal service concerning securing the vote by mail via blockchain technology. Another, however, wrote, "There's a reason we've been calling it 'snail mail' for the past 10 years or more. Mail is slow and has gotten progressively slower over the past decade or more even though stamp prices skyrocket." Many others praised U.S.P.S. workers for performing "a, mostly, thankless job."

Of the 493 respondents, 98.2 percent said they would be voting Nov. 3.

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