Ep. 2: New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scalan

The Ballot Box Briefing is a weekly segment on Sirius XM’s The Briefing, that examines the issues and storylines at the heart of running an efficient and accurate election. Guests include election administrators, local, state, and federal officials, cybersecurity experts, legal analysts, and members of BPC’s Democracy Program.

The Ballot Box Briefing’s second episode was an interview with David Scanlan, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State. He provides an update from the ground on New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, the investigation into possible AI-generated robocalls targeting NH voters, and reasons to trust in the electoral process.   

Edited Transcript

STEVE SCULLY (SS): First of all, a record turnout on Tuesday. What are the final numbers and what does that tell you about the New Hampshire primary and those who went out Tuesday to cast their ballots? 

DAVID SCANLAN (DS): Well, New Hampshire primary is certainly alive and well. I predicted a record turnout of 322,000 Republican votes, and I almost hit that on the button – 325,000 turned out. On the Democratic side, there was also a good deal of energy. Typically, when an incumbent is running for a second term, the turnout is lower than you would normally expect. But even at that, 125,000 Democratic voters turned out, and 79,000 of those actually wrote in President Biden’s name on the ballot because he did not file to run in the New Hampshire primary. 

SS: And in New Hampshire, if you run for President, you do have to file in person, correct? 

DS: You don’t have to file in person. However, most of the candidates do because of the media attention that surrounds the filings and the great publicity that they get out of doing that. It’s almost expected. 

SS: New Hampshire is doing something that we recommend here at the Bipartisan Policy Center: including independents in the primary and allowing them to choose either a Democrat or a Republican ballot. Explain to a national audience how that works. As you well know, Donald Trump has been critical of this policy, saying that Democrats could switch at the last minute to vote in a Republican primary. What’s the fact? What’s the the myth? 

DS: New Hampshire is a semi-open primary, which means that if a person is registered as a Republican they can only vote in the Republican primary, and if a person is registered as a Democrat, they can only vote in the Democratic primary. 

But we have a very large block of undeclared voters. They have the option of going to the polling place, declaring a party by obtaining that party’s ballot, and then changing their status back to undeclared after they vote. If they leave the polling place without doing that, then they remain a member of the party in which they just voted. 

SS: As you talk to your fellow Secretaries of State across the country what do you tell them about this issue? What advice would you give those that have closed primaries? 

DS: I don’t make recommendations to other states on how they should run their elections. The process in New Hampshire works for New Hampshire and other states, for whatever reason, have closed primaries. Some are completely open where any voter can go in and choose any party’s ballot. 

The thing about primaries is that it is the nominating process. Voters are actually choosing delegates for candidates when they go to the polls and vote. Those delegates will go to the party’s national convention and then it will be the convention that actually determines who the nominee will be on the general election ballot. 

SS: As you look at the primary on Tuesday, the weather cooperated and there was a record turnout. Are there any changes that you’d make moving forward or did it work as you expected? 

DS: New Hampshire’s primary always works, and this year was no exception. We attribute that to the thousands of New Hampshire citizens that actually work as poll workers. Every polling place elects the people that run the polling place, so everybody knows everybody. Those individuals are elected because of their ability to run an election and their integrity in maintaining the process. It is a truly citizen volunteer effort and it is a wide-open, observable process. It’s transparent from the minute the polls open until the results are announced and posted at the polling place. It really doesn’t work any better than that. 

SS: A lot of states in the general election have early voting. What’s the process in New Hampshire? 

DS: New Hampshire has absentee voting with an excuse. Excuses could be that a person is absent from the community that they live in, or they have a disability that prevents them from getting to the polling place, or they can’t vote because of a religious observance on the day of the election. In those situations, the voter can request an absentee ballot. But New Hampshire does not have early voting and does not have mail-in voting. 

SS: The new frontier in politics clearly is AI, and it did play out in your state with a robocall that was going out early in the week before Tuesday. I want to play that robocall and get your thoughts about what you know about it, how it happened, and what concerns you have as the Secretary of State. Let’s listen. 

ROBOCALL: A bunch of malarkey. We know the value of voting democratic when our votes count. It’s important that you save your vote for the November election. You’ll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday. If you would like to be removed from future calls, please press 2 now. 

SS: And again, to be very clear, that was a fake AI-generated call. Secretary Scanlon, what are your concerns? What are you worried about? 

 DS: That is a form of voter suppression. There’s no question about that. It is illegal in New Hampshire. Our Attorney General’s office is aggressively researching it and hopefully they can find out the person or the persons responsible for that. 

I don’t think that it had a major impact on the vote in New Hampshire, especially when you look at the success of the write-in campaign that was run for Joe Biden on the democratic side. But it is strong evidence of the issues that we’re going to face in the future related to AI and the way that it could be used to manipulate votes. I know that it is an issue that is of concern to every Secretary of State in the country and we will be working together on that topic to try and figure out a way to manage that. 

SS: Is there one thing that you wish more people knew or understood about elections and the American electoral process? 

DS: I wish that voters would take the time to educate themselves on the actual voting process and what happens in a polling place. I would guess that most of them are completely unaware of the checks and balances that are at play all through the process that can give voters confidence in the election. 

For example, in New Hampshire, we have ballot clerks who are individuals that sit side by side in the polling place. One hands out the ballot to the voter while the other person crosses the name off the checklist. Those individuals are actually appointed by the political parties, so you have a Democrat sitting next to a Republican participating in that process. Not only are they keeping an eye on each other, but they’re also eyes in the polling place that can look for things that might be amiss. 

The fact that New Hampshire election officials are from the community in which the polling place is located gives them ownership of that process. They know their neighbors and the voters know them. That should instill confidence. The process from start to finish is transparent. The only thing that’s private is how the individual voter actually marked their ballot. That’s the way it should be. There’s plenty of opportunities for recounts and appeals, and for that reason, voters in New Hampshire should be confident that their elections are well run, accurate, and they can have confidence in them. 

STEVE SCULLY (SS): First of all, a record turnout on Tuesday. What are the final numbers and what does that tell you about the New Hampshire primary and those who went out Tuesday to cast their ballots? 

DAVID SCANLAN (DS): Well, New Hampshire primary is certainly alive and well. I predicted a record turnout of 322,000 Republican votes, and I almost hit that on the button - 325,000 turned out. On the Democratic side, there was also a good deal of energy. Typically, when an incumbent is running for a second term, the turnout is lower than you would normally expect. But even at that, 125,000 Democratic voters turned out, and 79,000 of those actually wrote in President Biden's name on the ballot because he did not file to run in the New Hampshire primary. 

SS: And in New Hampshire, if you run for President, you do have to file in person, correct? 

DS: You don't have to file in person. However, most of the candidates do because of the media attention that surrounds the filings and the great publicity that they get out of doing that. It's almost expected. 

SS: New Hampshire is doing something that we recommend here at the Bipartisan Policy Center: including independents in the primary and allowing them to choose either a Democrat or a Republican ballot. Explain to a national audience how that works. As you well know, Donald Trump has been critical of this policy, saying that Democrats could switch at the last minute to vote in a Republican primary. What's the fact? What's the the myth? 

DS: New Hampshire is a semi-open primary, which means that if a person is registered as a Republican they can only vote in the Republican primary, and if a person is registered as a Democrat, they can only vote in the Democratic primary. 

But we have a very large block of undeclared voters. They have the option of going to the polling place, declaring a party by obtaining that party's ballot, and then changing their status back to undeclared after they vote. If they leave the polling place without doing that, then they remain a member of the party in which they just voted. 

SS: As you talk to your fellow Secretaries of State across the country what do you tell them about this issue? What advice would you give those that have closed primaries? 

DS: I don't make recommendations to other states on how they should run their elections. The process in New Hampshire works for New Hampshire and other states, for whatever reason, have closed primaries. Some are completely open where any voter can go in and choose any party’s ballot. 

The thing about primaries is that it is the nominating process. Voters are actually choosing delegates for candidates when they go to the polls and vote. Those delegates will go to the party’s national convention and then it will be the convention that actually determines who the nominee will be on the general election ballot. 

SS: As you look at the primary on Tuesday, the weather cooperated and there was a record turnout. Are there any changes that you'd make moving forward or did it work as you expected? 

DS: New Hampshire's primary always works, and this year was no exception. We attribute that to the thousands of New Hampshire citizens that actually work as poll workers. Every polling place elects the people that run the polling place, so everybody knows everybody. Those individuals are elected because of their ability to run an election and their integrity in maintaining the process. It is a truly citizen volunteer effort and it is a wide-open, observable process. It’s transparent from the minute the polls open until the results are announced and posted at the polling place. It really doesn't work any better than that. 

SS: A lot of states in the general election have early voting. What's the process in New Hampshire? 

DS: New Hampshire has absentee voting with an excuse. Excuses could be that a person is absent from the community that they live in, or they have a disability that prevents them from getting to the polling place, or they can't vote because of a religious observance on the day of the election. In those situations, the voter can request an absentee ballot. But New Hampshire does not have early voting and does not have mail-in voting. 

SS: The new frontier in politics clearly is AI, and it did play out in your state with a robocall that was going out early in the week before Tuesday. I want to play that robocall and get your thoughts about what you know about it, how it happened, and what concerns you have as the Secretary of State. Let's listen. 

ROBOCALL: A bunch of malarkey. We know the value of voting democratic when our votes count. It's important that you save your vote for the November election. You'll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday. If you would like to be removed from future calls, please press 2 now. 

SS: And again, to be very clear, that was a fake AI-generated call. Secretary Scanlon, what are your concerns? What are you worried about? 

 DS: That is a form of voter suppression. There's no question about that. It is illegal in New Hampshire. Our Attorney General's office is aggressively researching it and hopefully they can find out the person or the persons responsible for that. 

I don't think that it had a major impact on the vote in New Hampshire, especially when you look at the success of the write-in campaign that was run for Joe Biden on the democratic side. But it is strong evidence of the issues that we're going to face in the future related to AI and the way that it could be used to manipulate votes. I know that it is an issue that is of concern to every Secretary of State in the country and we will be working together on that topic to try and figure out a way to manage that. 

SS: Is there one thing that you wish more people knew or understood about elections and the American electoral process? 

DS: I wish that voters would take the time to educate themselves on the actual voting process and what happens in a polling place. I would guess that most of them are completely unaware of the checks and balances that are at play all through the process that can give voters confidence in the election. 

For example, in New Hampshire, we have ballot clerks who are individuals that sit side by side in the polling place. One hands out the ballot to the voter while the other person crosses the name off the checklist. Those individuals are actually appointed by the political parties, so you have a Democrat sitting next to a Republican participating in that process. Not only are they keeping an eye on each other, but they're also eyes in the polling place that can look for things that might be amiss. 

The fact that New Hampshire election officials are from the community in which the polling place is located gives them ownership of that process. They know their neighbors and the voters know them. That should instill confidence. The process from start to finish is transparent. The only thing that's private is how the individual voter actually marked their ballot. That's the way it should be. There's plenty of opportunities for recounts and appeals, and for that reason, voters in New Hampshire should be confident that their elections are well run, accurate, and they can have confidence in them.