from a September 25, 2008 article in the Union Leader:
Hooksett election official resigns
HOOKSETT – In an effort to deflect public criticism alleging that the state primaries were mismanaged two weeks ago, Supervisor of the Checklist Frank Gray submitted his resignation during the town council meeting last night.
“I don’t like to quit,” Gray said. “What happened here, I can’t answer. But I don’t believe for a moment anyone tried to interfere with voters. We’ve all had training.”
And although the council may still be scratching its head over exactly what when wrong during the primaries, it was also informed that a part-time assistant has been hired to clear any errors on the checklist of registered voters before Election Day Nov. 4.
Gray, who was chairman of the three elected supervisors in January, was accused of failing to reassign party affiliations for dozens of Hooksett voters immediately after the presidential primaries. As a result, a number of voters who thought they were registered as independent had been, in fact, affiliated with the party they chose to support during January. They were allowed to vote in the state primaries on Sept. 9, but only for the ticket they voted with eight months earlier.
Arlene Longfellow, the current chairman of the supervisors for Hooksett, said the errors on the checklist rubbed many voters the wrong way.
“People didn’t get changed over (to independent),” said Longfellow, wife of town council member George Longfellow. “It made them upset and I don’t blame them. If I couldn’t vote the way I wanted to, I’d be upset too.”
Three complaints have been officially filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for enforcing voting laws.
Gray, who claimed responsibility for the errors because he was chairman at the time of the presidential primaries, said partial blame could be placed on the computer system that tracks registered voters across the state. He said the supervisors have had problems with the system in the past and he thinks the program “” executed through the federal Helping Americans Vote Act “” is a gateway to encourage fraudulent voting.
“The system that they have is flawed,” he said. “I don’t know if I did something wrong. Did the computer system mess up again like it has before? I don’t think there is any way of knowing.”
Robert Ehlers, also a supervisor of the checklist, told the town council that he and Arlene Longfellow are invested in making sure Election Day runs smoothly.
“We are really gearing up for this next election,” said Ehlers, also co-chair of the local Democratic Party. “We’re going to have a good (check) list.” Town Clerk Leslie Nepvue said her office, with the help of the new part-time assistant, is making sure the registered voter checklist is completely up-to-date and accurate.
Typographical errors, address changes, party status changes, deceased voters and duplicates on the list are being corrected, she said.
“We’re going right down soup to nuts to make sure it’s all clear,” Nepvue said.