NH Secretary Of State Race: Bill Gardner Wins After Re-Vote

CONCORD, NH -- It took two rounds of voting, but the longest-serving secretary of state in the country has extended his run. Longtime incumbent Bill Gardner defeated Colin Van Ostern, 209-205, in the second round of voting Wednesday afternoon.

The first round of voting saw Gardner get 208 votes and Van Ostern get 207. The winner needed 209 for a majority of the votes from the newly elected State House and State Senate members.

"I'm very, very grateful to those of you who let this happen," Gardner said. "That office is so unique and so special."

Gardner is the longest-serving secretary of state in the country at 42 years. This will be his 22nd consecutive two-year term.

"Secretary Gardner's love of New Hampshire, our great traditions, and history has been evident every day throughout his years of service," New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said in a statement. "I hope he heard the concerns expressed and views his re-election as an opportunity to both modernize the Secretary of State’s office, bringing more accountability and transparency to our elections, and to fight for all eligible voters’ right to cast a ballot, particularly in the face of efforts to restrict this basic right."

Gardner and Van Ostern are Democrats. Republicans rallied behind Gardner.

"This will be the only time that you'll ever hear me endorsing a Democrat," said Steve Stepanek, a Republican running for state GOP chair, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. "Bill Gardner is the guardian of the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary."

Van Ostern, of Concord, is a 39-year-old former executive councilor who ran for governor. He won a key endorsement last month when the new Democratic House majority backed him over Gardner in a straw poll, 179 to 23.

Some new lawmakers believe Gardner's tenure has stretched too long.

"We have an outdated office," Nicole Klein, a Manchester Democrat, told WMUR. "There needs to be some fresh involvement."

Van Ostern said he planned to conduct an audit of the secretary of state's office, modernize its website and hire a nonpartisan elections director.

"I know some pundits will say that this can't be done -- that it's impossible to take on the nation's longest-serving secretary of state, a member of my own political party who has been in office since three years before I was born," Van Ostern said in a statement to WMUR when he launched his bid. "But I believe competition is good for our democracy, especially for this role."

Gardner attracted some criticism from Democrats when he served on President Trump's "voter fraud" panel on the 2016 presidential election. Trump lost New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton and claimed it was because of "thousands" of illegal voters who were bussed in from Massachusetts. The panel was disbanded and a former member said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Photo credits: Holly Ramer/Associated Press (left) and Colin Van Ostern (right)

Jason Claffey, Patch, contributed to this report