Ballot-counting devices in Keene’s Ward 4 and Rindge will be among eight vote-tallying machines statewide that will be part of a post-election audit, the N.H. Secretary of State’s office announced Tuesday.
The announcement came as voters went to the polls in the state primary election.
The audit is required under a bill Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law in 2024, which mandates an examination of the results of some of the vote-counting machines used in state primary and general elections to test accuracy.
Keene is using the VotingWorks device. Audits will also be held involving these machines in use in Effingham, Rochester Ward 5 and Sandown.
Also being audited are Liberty Vote ImageCast devices in use in Rindge, Concord Ward 5, Kensington and Merrimack.
The VotingWorks and Liberty Vote devices have succeeded decades-old equipment that was used statewide but had become obsolete and difficult to repair. The new devices, like the old ones, are not connected to the Internet.
A full report of the audits will be published by the Secretary of State’s Office no later than noon Friday.
Under the law, a random sample of paper ballots are processed by an auditing machine and the results are compared to the ballot-counting device being audited.
In the event of significant differences, the secretary of state may expand the number of ballots sampled and may order a full hand recount.
Rick Green can be reached at 603-352-1234, extension 1435, or rgreen@keenesentinel.com.
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