Don’t look for New Hampshire to move toward computerized, touch-screen voting anytime soon.
Never mind the expense — new poll results from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center show voters have high confidence in their paper ballots, much less so in computer voting.
The WMUR Granite State Poll released on Tuesday showed 83 percent of New Hampshire voters surveyed are very or somewhat confident that their votes on paper ballots in previous elections were counted accurately. By contrast, only 52 percent would hold similar faith in a computerized touch-screen voting, and 46 percent said they would not be confident that their vote on a computerized touch screen would be counted accurately.
The UNH Survey Center asked the question this summer and released the results now, it said, because the security and accuracy of computerized voting systems has come into question because of high-profile electronic hacking in American society.
About 111 cities and towns in the state, including Lebanon, Hanover and Claremont, use paper ballots that are then run through ballot counting devices. Other communities count their paper ballots by hand.
Speaking of polls, Shawn O’Connor, the Harvard Business School graduate who could prove to be a spoiler as an independent candidate in New Hampshire’s First Congressional district, put out a news release Wednesday touting his own polling.
The problem is, the Bedford independent, a recent transplant who is running against U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta and Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in what is likely to be a tight race, declined to release the specific numbers that are most relevant — what O’Connor’s name ID is in the Manchester-area district, and how he fared in a head-to-head matchup between the two mainstream candidates. Asked repeatedly via email, the best O’Connor could offer was, “With me in the race they both dropped to 31 percent (still tied) and I was in the double digits.”
Vermont Supreme Court Justice John Dooley last month said he plans to step down in March after nearly 30 years on the high court in Montpelier, and outgoing Gov. Peter Shumlin started a kerfuffle when he said he plans to appoint a successor. This even though Shumlin leaves office in early January.
Shumlin’s Deputy Chief of Staff Sue Allen told reporters via email that the governor is following an established process involving the Judicial Nominating Board, which screens and recommends prospective judges to the governor.
“As it turns out, the statute and Board rules are clear: when a Supreme Court Justice announces they will not be a candidate for retention, the nominating board — upon notification by the governor of the vacancy – ‘shall’ initiate the process to send candidates to the governor,” Allen said in a statement. “The governor plans to interview qualified candidates and name a successor to Justice Dooley later this fall.”
Senate Republican Leader Joe Benning, whose Caledonia district includes several Bradford-area towns, said he was not worked up by Shumlin’s move, especially since Judicial Nominating Board Chairwoman Peg Flory, a fellow Republican senator, appears comfortable with the process.
“It is really not the United States Supreme Court that we are talking about,” Benning said Wednesday. “In addition, there still has to be a process with the Judicial Nominating Board, so I don’t see this personally as being as political as some people might.”
Whoever Shumlin picks would still be subject to a vote in the Vermont Senate, though Benning said he thought that would likely enjoy a “rubber stamp” approval.
Former state Rep. Paul Mirski, R-Enfield, is running unopposed for register of probate in Grafton County. It pays $100 a year and has virtually no duties now, but the job used to involve managing records involving estates, adoptions and name changes. Court reform a few years ago gave that records role to the courts, which Mirski disagrees with, and wants to change back.
“The people who wrote our (state) constitution did not want the court involved … in the disposition of personal estates. It’s a separation of powers issue,” Mirski said.
Chelsea Republican Bob Frenier, who is running for a Vermont House seat in the Orange 1 district, is the candidate behind those Burma Shave-style signs along area roadways. One catchy series reads, “Gov. Shumlin bumbled; Single-Payer crumbled; Our economy stumbled; But Vt. government grew; Let’s Fix It.”
A happy warrior passed away this week. Ruth Harvie, who died at 87, was the last Republican to represent Windsor County in the Vermont Senate before losing her seat in 1996.
A former English teacher, Harvie also ran a bed-and-breakfast in Chester, Vt., before moving to Kendal at Hanover in 2009.