New Hampshire is inching closer to bringing new technology into its elections. On First-in-the-Nation Primary Day in 2016 the lone polling location in Merrimack was swamped. Citizens waited for hours to cast ballots. Some gave up before getting a chance to vote. “It was just too hard to get there,” one voter said. “There was no way I was going to sit in traffic for that long.” The gridlock was largely the product of high turnout and a redesigned traffic pattern. But some of the wait may have been alleviated by E-Poll books; electronic versions of the paper checklists maintained by local election officials.
A big push is underway for E-Poll books in New Hampshire. A new law is under consideration at the Statehouse would allow for a trial program to let cities and towns test out this hardware.
“I’d challenge anyone to come out and see the poll workers use this. We find them really taking it to very easily, and they really like it a lot better than the paper instead of fumbling through a big book trying to find a name,” Jeff Silvestro, of LHS Associates, said.
Full Article: E-Poll book trial program under consideration at the Statehouse.