The New Hampshire Democratic Primary is not using Shadow Inc.’s app that became so well known (and so controversial) during the Iowa Caucus. This primary isn’t even being run by the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Instead, it’s being run by the Secretary of the State in New Hampshire and is using mostly paper ballots. Read on for more details.
The New Hampshire Primary Isn’t Using Shadow’s App Today
New Hampshire’s primary is very different from Iowa’s Caucus. For one thing, while the Iowa Democratic Party ran the Iowa Caucus, the Secretary of State of New Hampshire oversees the Democratic primary. It’s run by municipal officials, Union Leader reported.
Welcome back to the New Hampshire Primary fact series! Check out #1-5 above for info about our #FITN primary — happening tomorrow, Feb. 11.
Today we’re explaining delegate allocation! TL;DR – the certified election results are the source for official delegate counts. #nhpolitics
Officials have said that the state doesn’t use any apps to count the votes, Union Leader reported. So Shadow Inc.’s app and its investor ACRONYM are not involved in this primary. (In contrast, Nevada’s Caucus was testing its own version of the Shadow app, but they have since said they will not be using that company’s app for their caucus on February 22.)
Voters in New Hampshire by and large use paper ballots counted by Accuvote machines, Union Leader noted. These machines aren’t online, so they won’t be hackable. Politico confirmed this same information.
Aside from these paper ballots, Politico reported that electronic voting machines from a system called One4All will also be used for people with disabilities.
Bill Gardner, Secretary of State of New Hampshire, told Union Leader that he’s confident New Hampshire won’t have any issues like Iowa has had. The results will also include write-in votes and absentee ballots.
Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan told Politico that they have the “appropriate protections in place for our electronic systems, but we understand that anything that is electronic has the potential of being hacked, and so we’re vigilant and we’re ready to deal with whatever comes at us.”
Results will be known fairly quickly once they’re announced by moderators at each polling location. But Gardner’s office won’t announce the official results until Wednesday, February 12, after his office receives them and tabulates them, Union Leader noted.
Gov. Chris Sununu guaranteed that primary results will be available on Tuesday night on time, Boston Herald reported. Results are typically known within an hour of the polls closing, which means we could know the results as early as 8 p.m. Eastern in some locations.
Unlike a caucus, the primary works like any other election, where people vote at their polling locations during a specified time period. Polls open at different times, depending on the location. Some don’t open until 11 a.m. Eastern, but others open as early as 6 a.m. Most close at 7 p.m. but some may stay open until 8 p.m. Candidates are only viable (and can only be allocated delegates) if they earn more than 15 percent of the vote. Delegates will be awarded proportionally. This is not a winner-takes-all state.
Although it cannot be guaranteed that there won’t be any issues in today’s primary, New Hampshire has assured the public that issues with an app won’t be a problem in this state.