Under a new NH voting law, the right to a secret ballot is no longer guaranteed

New Hampshire Public Radio | By Todd Bookman
Published May 22, 2024 at 4:50 PM EDT



Annabelle Rogers, 18, voted using an affidavit ballot. Her voting preferences later became public record.

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Every other person who voted that day in Hopkinton — and in elections across the state — was afforded a secret ballot, a bedrock of American democracy that ensures participants in elections are free from intimidation or coercion.

But because of a relatively new and little used state law, Rogers was handed a different ballot. Hers was numbered, and trackable. If she didn’t return proof of eligibility within seven days, her vote wouldn’t count — and the candidates she chose on her ballot that day could become publicly available information, without her knowledge or consent.

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Some people warned about this very consequence — the disclosure of individual voters' ballot choices — when the law was up for debate at the State House.

The Republican-backed law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in 2022 launched the use of provisional ballots for first-time voters who don’t have proper identification when they register at the polls.

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