FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Keene, NH – The NH Liberty Party has filed a slate of electors with the New Hampshire Secretary of State.
While 35 States currently require a declaration of intent from those wishing to be write-in candidates, New Hampshire is among the states without write-in declarations. Even though all write-in votes are considered valid, they are not always counted.
NH Election Procedures Manual states “Each write-in vote, even votes for fictitious or historical figures, should be announced in some manner.”
Additionally, Title 3, section 6, of the U.S. code requires jurisdictions with presidential electors to tell the National Archivist the exact number of votes received by each qualified candidate for presidential elector. Since NH doesn’t have declaration of intent for write-in candidates, there is no way to know who the electors are for Presidential write-in candidates.
The NHLP seeks to bring these laws to the attention of the Secretary of State. In doing so, the NHLP has created and filed (via Certified Letter and email) a “Declaration of Write-in Candidacy” with the Elections Division of the NHSOS. The Declaration lists the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, the four electors, as well as the applicable State and federal laws that specify the requirement to tabulate write-in votes.
RSA 659:73-1 I. (b) For each office the total number of votes cast for each write-in candidate who received 5 or more votes and the candidate’s name, along with the aggregate number of all other write-in votes cast for each candidate receiving less than 5 votes, excluding write-in votes for candidates whose names were printed on the ballot where the voter did not mark the printed candidate name and the vote is reported under subparagraph (a).
3 USC § 6 – Credentials of electors; transmission to Archivist of the United States and to Congress; public inspection
It shall be the duty of the executive of each State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of the electors in such State by the final ascertainment, under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such ascertainment, to communicate by registered mail under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast; and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day on which they are required by section 7 of this title to meet, six duplicate-originals of the same certificate under the seal of the State; and if there shall have been any final determination in a State in the manner provided for by law of a controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, it shall be the duty of the executive of such State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to communicate under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such determination in form and manner as the same shall have been made; and the certificate or certificates so received by the Archivist of the United States shall be preserved by him for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection; and the Archivist of the United States at the first meeting of Congress thereafter shall transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and every such certificate so received at the National Archives and Records Administration.
