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A Republican prosecutor running a tough-on-crime campaign against a Democratic defense attorney should have checked his evidence before launching the political attack that’s now backfiring.

Hillsborough County Attorney John Coughlin’s reelection campaign recently launched a website attacking his opponent, Kim Kossick, for defending alleged Valley Cemetery rapist Amuri Diole. Diole was arrested in April 2021 for the violent rape of a woman for two hours in the cemetery.

But court records show Diole had been released from jail a week before the alleged rape because prosecutors in Coughlin’s office failed to file the necessary paperwork to keep the dangerous suspect locked up.

“I can’t change history. I can’t change the facts,” Coughlin told NHJournal.

At the same time, Coughlin’s opponent is trying to use the campaign website to get Diole off the hook for ever facing a trial over the horrific crime he allegedly committed.

Kossick is taking heat for running as a liberal reformer.

Because the campaign website mentions the Diole case, Kossick filed a motion in court to have the criminal charges dismissed. Diole was deemed incompetent to stand trial in the alleged rape in 2022 and is currently being held in the New Hampshire State Prison Secure Psychiatric Unit in Concord as the state seeks to have him ruled a sexually violent predator and then have him further held on an involuntary civil commitment.

But under state law, if Diole is ever returned to competency through medical treatment, he could then go on trial for the alleged rape. Kossik wants Diole to avoid prosecution in the future because, she says, Coughlin’s attack on her work defending Diole against the civil commitment taints the potential jury pool.

“The website is targeted at Hillsborough County voters and jurors,” Kossick said. “The people on the voting rolls are the jurors.”

Coughlin supporters say it is an example of the progressive approach Kossick would take to prosecuting crime. The issue has even reached the New Hampshire governor’s race.

On WMUR, Adam Sexton asked Democrat Joyce Craig if she supported the effort to use a campaign attack ad to get Diole exempted from prosecution. She appeared to defend her fellow Democrat.

“Everyone has the right to a civil defense,” Craig said. “And Kim Kossick is doing her job, and I believe that the county attorney has to be someone who represents our county and is always doing what’s right.”

Kossick says the real issue is that Diole wouldn’t have been out and able to commit the crime of Coughlin’s office had done its job.

“Coughlin doesn’t know what’s going on in his own office,” Kossick said.

Kossick was appointed to represent Diole during the civil commitment proceedings in the 2021 rape case, and ended up appealing the commitment to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sided against Doile. Coughlin’s website attacks Kossick for representing Diole.

“Instead of ensuring justice for the victim, Kossick prioritized the legal defense of a man deemed too dangerous to release into society,” the website states.

Coughlin, echoing the website, told NHJournal that Kossick does not prioritize the rights of victims and their families as evidenced by her work to represent Diole. 

“The website is about her judgment and about victims rights, and her failure to protect the victims of crimes and their families,” Coughlin said.

But NHJournal reviewed the court records in Diole’s criminal history and found a failure by Coughlin’s office put Diole on the street a week before the alleged rape.

According to court records, Diole was jailed in early 2021 as the result of a 2018 assault case in Nashua. When the issue of Dole’s competency was raised in pre-trial in that case, he underwent an examination by Forensic Psychologist Mathilde Pelaprat. On Jan. 27, 2021, Judge Charles Temple deemed Diole a danger to himself and others and ordered Diole held for 90 days, giving time for prosecutors to have Diole committed.

But prosecutors failed to get the involuntary commitment order within the 90 days, forcing Temple to release Diole in his April 23, 2021, order. 

“In accordance with RSA 135:17-a, V, the defendant is released from custody at the Hillsborough County House of Corrections. The State has been unable to secure an involuntary commitment order and the 90 day hold period expires on April 27, 2021. As such, Mr. Diole’s release is mandatory under RSA 135:17-a, V,” Temple wrote.

According to media reports, Diole went from living in the Valley Street Jail in Manchester to the Valley Cemetery across the street for the next six days before he was arrested again for the brutal rape. 

Coughlin blamed Diole’s release on the fact one of his assistant county attorneys was unable to get a qualified specialist to examine Diole within the 90-day timeframe. Prosecutors must use specially qualified experts from a pre-approved list provided by the state to examine people for involuntary commitment proceedings, he said. 

“We made reasonable efforts to identify specialists,” Coughlin said.

Since Dole’s re-arrest for the alleged rape, Coughlin said his office worked with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on an expanded list of qualified specialists to make sure people who are a danger to the community can be committed. 

Kossick said blaming her, a defense attorney, for representing a criminal ignores the right every American has for a vigorous defense under both the United States Constitution and the New Hampshire Constitution.

“Defense attorneys are the only people standing between the government and their client,” Kossick said.

Kossick was surprised that Coughlin, a former judge, would attack her for the work she did as a defense attorney. Not only does such an attack undermine the criminal justice system, but it is totally out of character for Coughlin, she said.

“We all thought John Coughlin was a very good judge,” Kossick said. “We all thought he was great because he never revoked bail and never put anyone in jail. I can only assume he’s pandering to somebody.”

Windham’s streak of questionable election conduct continues. On Tuesday, officials held a vote reconciliation without informing the New Hampshire secretary of state or the public to double-check the totals from the March 12 town elections.

Town residents began contacting NHJournal Tuesday morning when a posting appeared claiming to be a “legal notice” that the town of Windham “will perform an election reconciliation [sic] the March 12, 2024 Election.”

“The public is encouraged to observe this process,” the notice added. To do that, several residents groused, they would have to know about it in advance.

Windham’s municipal elections were already under stress after both the Town Clerk Nicole Merrill and Deputy Town Clerk Hannah Davis announced two weeks before they were vacating their posts as of Election Day, March 12. Merrill cited health concerns for her departure, and Davis blamed pressure and a lack of support from superiors as driving her exit.

NHJournal contacted the town clerk’s office Tuesday and was told the decision to hold the reconciliation was made the night before. A source in the Secretary of State’s office, which oversees the state’s election, said they were unaware a reconciliation was being conducted.

The last election official left in town, Town Moderator Peter Griffin, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Vote reconciliations are typically conducted immediately after election polls close, votes are counted, and official results are reported. Officials compare votes, voters, and ballots cast to ensure accurate totals are reported.

Tom Murray, co-founder of the far-right Government Integrity Project, says there are concerns about Windham’s handling of the election. He says the results reported on election night were inaccurate, for example.

“The school moderator, Betty Dunn, who was on the ballot seeking reelection, was handling ballots that she appears on as a candidate during election night,” Murray said. He also claimed Dunn “has been involved in multiple unofficial recount/reconciliation efforts outside of the public.” Plus, he pointed out that the town’s notice for the reconciliation “did not meet the 24-hour requirement.”

And, Murray said, he will be asking for a recount of the March 12 election.

Murray told NHJournal that nobody is arguing that any election’s outcome will be changed. Instead, he said, it’s time for the town to finally admit—after five troubled election cycles in a row—that there’s a fundamental problem with its elections.

“It’s just incompetence,” Murray said. “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Perhaps unrelated, Windham’s Board of Selectmen is meeting Wednesday evening in a non-public session. The board’s meeting notice cites RSA 91-A:3 II (a) as the legal justification for the non-public meeting. That section of the state’s Right to Know law allows public bodies to meet behind closed doors to discuss “the dismissal, promotion, or compensation of any public employee or the disciplining of such employee, or the investigation of any charges against him or her.”

Windham is no stranger to election issues. Unusual results in the 2020 election fed into national election conspiracies, and the state issued multiple warnings, including a rebuke for sloppy practices in the 2022 state primary.

When Windham became part of former President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election being stolen, an expansive and controversial audit of the Windham ballots found human error to blame. The 2020 audit report stated several hundred absentee ballots had been machine-folded as part of the mailing process. “That folding machine, leased by the town for other purposes, did not fold ballots along the score lines between vote targets, where the ballots were designed to be folded,” according to the audit. “Instead, it often folded ballots through vote targets in the state representative contest, which the scanners interpreted as vote attempts a substantial fraction of the time.”

Windham got in trouble again after the 2022 September state-wide primary when numerous errors by election day officials and corner-cutting on standard election procedure meant the primary election totals could not be reconciled on the night of the election, according to a letter from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

And in January, Windham was required to conduct the First in the Nation presidential primary in the town under the watchful eye of two outside observers, per instructions from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the Secretary of State’s Office.

“It was the second time we had to have an observer for our elections,” Murray sighed. “We’re on our way to a third.”

Maybe Republican former state Rep. Troy Merner should not have answered the door in his underwear when an investigator from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office knocked at the Carroll home where he lives.

Maybe he should have resigned from his elected positions when he moved to the home outside his district. Or maybe someone in the State House should have acted when they were alerted about Merner’s residency in December 2022.

That was when top lawyers with the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Myles Matteson and Anne Edwards, called Terry Pfaff, the Chief Operating Officer of the General Court, to inform him of Merner’s living situation, according to records made available Tuesday. House Speaker Sherman Packer (R-Londonderry) acknowledged Tuesday he was informed last December as well.

Merner was allowed to continue to represent the district he no longer lived in for months.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it is charging Merner, 63, for wrongful voting, theft by deception, and unsworn falsification. The charges are the next act in a legal drama that started a year ago.

Formella’s office did not make Merner’s residency problem public until this March after it received a complaint that Merner had voted in Lancaster’s municipal election. Merner continued to serve in the House until September, when Formella’s office sent a memo to Packard confirming Merner did not live in Lancaster.

However, according to the records, investigators and attorneys inside Formella’s office knew Merner did not live in Lancaster as early as December of last year.

Packard said in a statement released Tuesday night he was aware of the December call to Pfeff, but Merner disputed that he did not meet the residency requirement. 

“Allegations against Merner were made in December 2022, and the General Court was made aware that Merner disputed and contested those allegations then. Merner continued to attest to the General Court through signed official paperwork that his residence was in Lancaster,” Packard said. “The details of Merner’s admissions relative to his residing outside of his district were not brought to the attention of the Speaker’s Office until September when the Department of Justice investigation had concluded.”

Merner was a Lancaster selectman and a state representative for Lancaster, Dalton, North Cumberland, and Stratford. The only problem is that he lives in Carroll, having moved there in the summer of 2022 with his new wife, Janet Nelson. After moving, Merner was elected to the House to represent Coos District 1 in November 2022.

Merner did not respond to a call Tuesday. He claimed, according to statements made to investigators, that his out-of-district residency was well known, and he was encouraged by others to continue serving, though he did not name his supporters.

The affidavit filed in the case depicted a man who seemed not to realize he was doing anything wrong.

“State Rep. Merner told (Investigator Anna) Brewer-Croteau that he could not believe that someone actually complained to (the attorney general), further stating that he (State Rep. Merner) has done so much for the town of Lancaster,” the affidavit written by Investigator Thomas Defosses stated.

A Lancaster resident contacted the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office a week after the 2022 election to report Merner was no longer living in town, and that the fact was well-known in Lancaster.

Merner sold his Lancaster home in the summer of 2022 and moved to Carroll after marrying Nelson. He claimed he had an arrangement with the buyer of his former home that he could temporarily stay in a room there, but he often stays overnight in an office he’s rented in Lancaster.

In his Dec. 5 meeting with Brewer-Croteau, during which he was in his boxers and a T-shirt and eating cereal, Merner said he planned to finish his terms as a selectman and state representative but not stand for reelection in 2024 since he no longer lived in Lancaster.

Lancaster Town Manager Benjamin Gaetjens-Oleson was aware of the issue when Brewer-Croteau interviewed him, saying he had fielded many complaints about Merner’s residency. But, Gaetjens-Oleson felt he could not do anything since Merner was technically his boss.

Gaetjens-Oleson reportedly warned Merner about his residency problem, saying it was “going to cause an upheaval with the locals.”

Merner would later tell Investigator Richard Tracy he had to keep on as a selectman since he was the only member of the board who did any work.

Tracy was assigned to the case after Fenella’s office got a complaint about Merner voting in the March elections in Lancaster. Merner told Tracy he thought voting was OK even though he did not live there.

“(He) said he had not heard back from the Attorney General’s Office since he spoke with (Investigator) Brewer-Croteau, and he did not think he was doing anything wrong,” the affidavit states. 

At that point, Tracy had established Merner was not regularly sleeping in the office he rented in Lancaster, as the neighbors attested they did not see him. When confronted with that, Merner claimed he thought it would be OK if he had an address in Lancaster and worked at the town offices regularly.

Now that his residency was out in the open, the investigation was on. Investigators found Merner had been submitting mileage expenses to the General Court for round trips to Concord from Lancaster and not Carroll. Lawmakers can get reimbursed for their trips to Concord to serve their constituents.

A round trip from Lancaster to Concord is about 202 miles, while the Carroll to Concord trip is about 176 miles, meaning Merner was overcharging taxpayers to get to work. According to the affidavit, Merner overcharged taxpayers a total of $973 throughout his entire term.

Merner was ousted from the House in September and resigned as a Lancaster selectman in October. He is now facing prison time, as the wrongful voting charge is a class B misdemeanor which carries a possible three-and-a-half to seven-year prison sentence. He is due to be arraigned on Dec. 28.

Voters take to the polls on Tuesday after another violent week in Manchester.

Three people were stabbed Saturday by a man wielding a box cutter at the Capital Auto Auction on Londonderry Turnpike. Byron Bloomfield, 25, is charged with three counts of first-degree assault for the attack.

But, there is a good chance Bloomfield will be back on the streets in time to vote. The Queen City keeps seeing people charged with serious crimes get easy bail.

On Tuesday, Manchester Police arrested Anastase Kabura, 24, on a charge of being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon while investigating a disturbance on Precourt Street. Kabura had been arrested days before on a disorderly conduct charge and was quickly released.

The revolving door at the courthouse is leaving Manchester’s streets unsafe, said Jay Ruais, the GOP candidate for mayor.

“Time and time again, we see violent criminals released on bail and rearrested. We must fix the broken bail system to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe … The safety and well-being of Manchester residents and visitors is at risk every time a violent criminal is released back out onto our streets,” Ruais said. 

In recent months, two men charged in an Elm Street shooting got released on relatively low cash bail. In another incident, 10 people were arrested for being part of a street fight in the area of Auburn and Cedar Streets, where two men were stabbed. Most of the suspects were quickly released on bail.

Ruais is running as a change agent against current Mayor Joyce Craig’s hand-picked successor, Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh. Ruais wants to see the bail system plaguing New Hampshire fixed, he wants to concretely deal with the city’s growing homeless problem, and he wants to get a handle on the opioid crisis.

Critics of the city’s current leadership argue Cavanaugh is essentially running as Craig 2.0, offering more of the same policies the incumbent mayor has already tried. “I want to build on the progress we’ve made in the past few years,” Cavanaugh said in an ad.

Many Manchester residents don’t see the past few years as a time of progress.

Manchester’s homeless population continues to grow, seeing a major increase over the past several years. According to the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness, the Manchester region was home to more than 1,700 homeless people in 2021, the most recent data available.

The homeless population is tied to the city’s opioid addiction crisis, with half the opioid overdoses taking place among that group. 

“We have a city filled with promise, but the drug problem and homeless crisis are contributing to the serious public safety concerns we have and are keeping us from reaching our full potential,” Ruais said.

Manchester is on track for more than 720 opioid overdoses this year, according to American Medical Response data, the biggest number of overdoses since 2016.

Crime statistics show Manchester is the top spot for violent crime in New Hampshire, far outpacing other cities and towns. Data from the Manchester Police Department show the city is experiencing a drop in property crime this year, though violent crime reports are holding steady compared to prior years.

“The status quo that we are seeing here in the city cannot continue,” Ruais told WMUR. “We cannot tolerate the disorder and dysfunction we’re seeing on our streets, and we also can’t tolerate the human suffering we’re seeing.”

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign staff can rest easy now that Judge Joseph LaPlante dismissed tax attorney John Castro’s federal lawsuit to block Trump from the ballot.

Castro, who on paper is a Republican presidential candidate, was trying to force the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office to disqualify Trump under the 14th Amendment. But LaPlante ruled Friday that Castro’s legal arguments and constitutional theories did not pass muster. Specifically, Castro could not prove that his obscure presidential campaign was harmed in any meaningful way by Trump’s.

“Castro makes no attempt to demonstrate that he is actually competing with Trump for votes and contributions, as required under the operative competitor standing theory. The evidence shows that Castro has not campaigned in New Hampshire or elsewhere. Castro has not provided any evidence suggesting that he has voters or contributors in New Hampshire or elsewhere, or that he will benefit from voter or contributor defections from Trump to himself. To the contrary, he acknowledges that he will not win any delegates in the primary,” LaPlante wrote in his order to dismiss.

Richard Lehmann, the New Hampshire attorney representing Trump, said Castro’s argument was hurt by his complete lack of evidence. However, Castro didn’t have much choice in bringing evidence, Lehmann said.

“(T)here was no evidence he could have presented,” Lehmann told NHJournal. “He admitted that the purpose of his candidacy was to get around existing case law that says voters do not have standing to challenge the qualifications of presidential candidates. The judge ruled that cutting a check to the New Hampshire Secretary of State and calling yourself a candidate, despite the complete absence of an actual campaign, did not confer standing, either.”

Castro has filed 27 federal lawsuits aimed at keeping Trump off the ballot because of Trump’s actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Castro argues the former president cannot serve another term due to the 14th Amendment’s clause barring insurrectionists from holding office.

Castro’s earlier attempts to stop Trump were rejected by courts that ruled he had no standing to bring his lawsuits. Castro’s novel solution was to create a presidential campaign to establish the necessary standing.

In courts, standing is the legal requirement that the party bringing a complaint must be able to prove they suffered specific harm from the actions of the opposing party. Castro filed nomination paperwork in key swing states, including New Hampshire. In his 27 federal lawsuits, Castro says Trump is holding back his presidential run.

LaPlante called that argument weak and speculative. Castro claimed that if Trump were not running, at least some Trump voters and donors would back him instead. Castro relied on no evidence to back this claim during last week’s evidentiary hearing in the United States District Court in Concord, telling LaPlante that “the math” proves someone would switch to his campaign without Trump in the race. LaPlante was not convinced.

“An injury based on speculation about the decisions of independent actors does not confer standing,” LaPlante wrote.

Possibly fatal for Castro’s efforts going forward is LaPlante’s opinion that even if he were a serious presidential candidate and could prove standing, it wouldn’t matter. Courts cannot bar people from running for office under the 14th Amendment, LaPlante wrote, or any other constitutional provision. That power belongs to Congress.

“In sum, the vast weight of authority has held that the Constitution commits to Congress and the electors the responsibility of determining matters of presidential candidates’ qualifications,” LaPlante wrote.

Castro’s failure in New Hampshire will unlikely cause this political gadfly to land. He still has dozens more lawsuits in other states and a history as a perennial candidate.

After running for state offices in Texas as a Democrat, Castro switched parties in 2020. He made runs for Senate and Congress in Texas as a Republican, though he barely registered in the final results in either campaign.

Castro has also created quite a legal record outside of politics. In 2018, his $5 million lawsuit against the Georgetown University law school was dismissed. Castro sued his alma mater after he was banned from the Georgetown hiring fair, both as a prospective employee and employer.

His ban was a result of resume inflation, according to court records. Castro claimed to have been a West Point cadet, though, in fact, he attended a prep school for cadet candidates who had not yet academically qualified for the service academy.

Last year, Castro’s client Alan Dixon, CEO of now failed Australian financial firm Dixon Advisory, lost his refund appeal case with the IRS. Dixon relied on Castro and his novel interpretation of tax law to refile two years of tax returns to shield his American revenue from American taxes.

Castro refiled the Dixon tax returns for 2013 and 2015 and sought $3.2 million in refunds. Instead of getting a giant check from the IRS, Dixon ended up audited. It turns out Castro signed the tax returns for Dixon without any legal power of attorney, according to court records.

Dixon ended up with a bigger tax bill, and his company imploded around the same time, costing thousands of Australians their retirement funds.

The state of Maine recently went to court to fight against transparency regarding its voter registration data, a position so problematic it drew opposition from both the Biden administration and one of its most fervent critics.

Maine is appealing the federal lawsuit won by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) over the Pine Tree State’s law restricting who can access voter registration data and what they can do with it.

“The public has a right to inspect election records and discuss any errors they find,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “Maine has given the government power to silence individuals from speaking and criticizing election officials for not doing a good job. This case is an important step to stop the growing trend of states trying to dictate how concerned citizens may research voter rolls.”

Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wants to keep the law allowing the state to review how its data is used and punish anyone it believes has used it improperly. Opponents say that violates the National Voter Registration Act (NRVA).

In an October 5 hearing, PILF lawyer Noel Johnson told judges in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that Maine’s law uses the threat of punishment to harm the public by keeping it in the dark about how elections are conducted.

“Congress designed the NVRA to make voter registration and list maintenance transparent, and Maine is thwarting Congress’ design. They are preventing criticism and speech,” Johnson said. 

PILF describes itself as a public interest law firm “dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections.” It has frequently challenged election policies, like expanding vote by mail, backed by the Biden administration and its political allies.

Congress passed the NVRA in 1993 to “increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote” in federal elections, “enhance the participation of eligible citizens as voters” in those elections, “protect the integrity of the electoral process,” and “ensure that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.”

A key part of the NVRA requires that states provide transparent voter registration data to the public. Noah Bokat-Lindell, a Biden administration lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, said transparency is vital in order to combat discrimination at the polls.

Bokat-Lindell argued laws like the one in Maine could be used to hide unconstitutional efforts to prevent minorities from voting. Making all voter registration data public, as the NVRA requires, gives the public tools to combat voter suppression.

“This is incredibly important to voter registration organizations,” Bokat-Lindell said.

United States District Court Judge George Singal ruled in favor of PILF earlier this year, finding Maine’s law flies in the face of the plain language of the NVRA by improperly restricting the use of the voter lists and imposing fines on anyone who ignores those restrictions.

The law would prohibit organizations like PILF from comparing Maine’s roll to New York’s to identify duplicate registrations across state lines. It would also stop people and organizations from reporting and educating on specific entries in Maine’s voter roll. The law imposes $1,000 fines for every violation, which could add up given Maine’s voter rolls include more than 1 million names. 

Maine’s Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Bolton argued Signal got it wrong in his ruling, claiming the state has no plans to enforce the penalties written into the law.

“I think it’s unlikely anything like that could happen,” Bolton said.

While Maine’s law could have been “worded better,” Bolton said PILF would almost certainly not be prosecuted for using voter registration data to analyze the election process in Maine, given the current policy of the Maine Attorney General’s Office. 

Justice Julie Rikelman did not appear to find the argument persuasive. She noted Bolton’s argument ignores the plain meaning of Maine’s law in favor of an informal, non-binding policy decision.

“Generally, we’re supposed to believe the legislature means what it says,” Rikelman said.

Justice Gustavo Gelpí noted Bolton’s assurance also ignores the fact that a new administration in Portland could easily reverse course and decide to prosecute PILF or anyone else. 

“I’ve had cases go on for years, a new government comes in, they change policy, and it’s back to square one,” Gelpi said.

PILF has been fighting Maine since 2019 when then-Secretary of State Matthew Dunlop denied the group’s request for the data. At the time, Maine’s law restricted voter registration data to political candidates and groups involved in get-out-the-vote efforts.

In response to the lawsuit, Maine changed the law to allow PILF to see the data. However, the restrictions and penalties in the revised statute meant PILF could legally not report on the findings in the data. 

With control of the State House down to a razor-thin margin, Secretary of State Dave Scanlan announced Thursday he plans to look again at one of the already recounted races, potentially returning a seat to the GOP.

On Monday, Democratic hopes of winning control of the House of Representatives were boosted when a recount of Hillsborough District 16, Manchester’s Ward 6, appeared to show incumbent Republican Larry Gagne lost 22 votes, handing a one-vote victory to challenger Maxine Mosley.

Almost immediately, however, Republicans suspected an error had occurred. Vote changes of more than a handful of ballots are rare. Rarer still are candidates losing votes in a recount. Scanlan, a veteran of many recounts, also took note of the unusual numbers.

“It’s unusual if it changes by more than 10 or 11 votes,” he told NHJournal.

Thanks to an audit of the district, it became clear that some 20 to 25 ballots were missed during Monday’s recount, bringing into question the results. Scanlan released a letter Thursday explaining the situation.

“Ballot counting will be continued in Hillsborough County state representative District 16 recount. The routine reconciliation process indicated that reconciliation and recount number were not equivalent,” the statement read. “The total number of ballots cast and counted for the office of governor in this district is greater than the total accounted for so far for the [Gagne v. Mosley] race. This indicates some ballots have not yet been counted in the recount.

“As a result, the process of recounting the ballots cast in that race will now continue on Monday, November 21, at 4 p.m.”

Republican House members told NHJournal they are pleased, but not surprised, by the decision. And they are very confident Gagne will ultimately hold the seat based on his original 1,820 to 1,797 margin.

“Every vote matters and should be counted. Anyone afraid to finish the recount should be questioned as to what they are afraid of finding,” said Rep. Ross Berry (R-Manchester). “This is a direct result of Republicans demanding transparency in our elections, and I look forward to bringing more sunshine into our voting process. The voters I represent in Ward 6 have a right to know all of their votes will be counted.”

There have been 17 recounts thus far, with a total of 29 currently scheduled, in the wake of last week’s midterms. Scanlan said it was a difficult decision to reopen the recount given the heightened scrutiny of the election process. But his office has more data available this year than in past years thanks to increased efforts to make sure the election results are accurate.

“It’s important that we get everything right,” Scanlan said.

The secretary of state has also created the Special Committee on Voter Confidence to examine concerns about election integrity in the state. While the committee has not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud, its final report has yet to be released.

Republicans currently have a one-seat majority in the House. A race in Rochester is tied. As a result, a Gagne win would be a significant development in determining control of the lower chamber.

Some candidates, mostly Republicans, requested recounts in races where they trailed by more than 100 votes, and it is extremely unlikely those outcomes will change during a recount. 

Manchester’s Ward 6 race isn’t the only one getting another look. Scanlan also announced 27 absentee ballots found in the Rockingham District 6 race could change the results. Democrat Eric Turer beat Republican Melissa Litchfield 1,213 to 1,198, a difference of 15 votes. However, an audit of that race found 27 absentee ballots were not counted on election night or during the recount this week.

Scanlan is asking the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission to order the 27 absentee ballots be counted and made part of the total.

It is a situation that echoes the 2020 election fiasco in Bedford, where election officials failed to count 190 absentee ballots and then attempted to hide their mistake from the general public.

All the hullaballoo over West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s steadfast opposition to the Democrats’ so-called “Build Back Better” spending bill distracted from a broader point with more far-reaching implications: it never had to get this far.

Because the U.S. Senate is evenly divided 50-50, any one of the Democratic senators in Washington could have put the brakes on this disastrous spending boondoggle at any point in time, including New Hampshire’s own Maggie Hassan.

Make no mistake, this is all political. Maggie Hassan doesn’t have the will to stand up to the left-wing progressives in her party like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Granite Staters will be left holding the bag, again.

During her first five years in the Senate, Hassan has been a reliable and loyal Democratic rubberstamp. This year alone she has voted for 100 percent of the Biden agenda. Think about that for a second; failing to reign in a pandemic he promised to crush, soaring energy prices, supply chain challenges with no end in sight, a surrender in Afghanistan that turned us into a global laughingstock. Sen. Hassan has been behind Joe Biden every single step of the way.  There is not a shred of independence in her political constitution.

In doing so, Hassan has broken the promise she made to Granite State voters during her 2016 campaign. Back then, she declared, “I will never fail to stand up to leaders in my own party as I have.”

If only those words had been more than campaign rhetoric. Hassan knew what she was doing when she said them. She is well aware New Hampshire’s electorate is nowhere near as left-wing as her voting record in office. To win statewide as a Democrat you must cloak your true liberal worldview until after the votes are cast, and then hope that flashy campaign ads will help voters forget by the next election.

Last week Hassan turned heads when she came out in favor of eliminating the Senate filibuster, long a priority of her party’s restless left flank. But no one should have been surprised. After all, in her heart of hearts, Sen. Hassan is a left-wing ideologue. But above all else, she is a politician who will say or do anything to get re-elected.

That is not – nor has it ever been – my style. I am not a polished politician; I am a public servant. I spent 33 years in the military, rising to the rank of brigadier general. I served 10 tours in Afghanistan. I love this country and it saddens me our state is represented by someone who lacks political courage. These times call for it and unfortunately, Sen. Hassan has failed us as a leader.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognize Joe Biden is not only out to lunch, but he’s wildly out of step with New Hampshire. Next year there is a reckoning brewing for anyone who has aided and abetted Biden’s many failures. The political tab is coming due, and Sen. Hassan is in big trouble.

Maggie Hassan is a political insider and career politician. To send her packing, Republicans need a non-establishment outsider. I’m hopeful New Hampshire voters will offer me the opportunity to be that change vessel because the status quo and the Biden-Hassan agenda isn’t working for any of us.

Documents obtained by New Hampshire Journal confirm Bedford town officials discovered still more mishandled ballots in September 2021 and, like the 190 uncounted ballots from November, are attempting to hide their discovery from the public.

Meanwhile, an attorney with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has told NHJournal it is preparing to begin an investigation into the matter.

Bedford Town Manager Rick Sawyer sent members of the Town Council an email on Tuesday informing them more ballots from the 2020 election were discovered by town staff, who kept their existence secret until this week.

“I am making you aware that the Town Clerk (Sally Kellar) just walked into my office with an envelope that she says contains cast ballots from the November 2020 election and that were found in a voting box in the September 2021 Special Election and handed to her,” Sawyer wrote. “I advised her immediately to contact the town attorney and the appropriate state officials. If it is as described, these ballots were counted in the election but would not have been available for the recount. I don’t know why notification was not made immediately in September.”

Sources tell NHJournal town election officials have no plan to reveal this information to the public. It’s still not clear how many ballots were discovered in this second incident, and they refused to answer questions about the ballots, or even acknowledge their existence to NHJournal.

The 2020 state Senate election in Bedford was close enough for a recount between incumbent Democrat Jeanne Dietsch and Republican Denise Ricciardi. Dietsch called off the recount halfway through, leaving Ricciardi with a 409-vote margin.

Town officials say the 190 uncast absentee ballots they discovered last November and hid from the public for nearly a year would not have changed any election results.

Kellar hung up when asked questions about the ballots on Tuesday, after saying that no ‘uncast ballots’ were found, an apparent attempt to mislead the reporter. Sawyer, Town Moderator Bill Klein, and Town Council Chair David Gilbert, and Vice-Chair Bill Carter were all contacted for this story. They all failed to respond.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Anne Edwards said Wednesday her office is aware of the latest ballot problem in Bedford and is looking into the matter.

“Yesterday, we were made aware of an issue regarding ballots in Bedford. At this time, we do not have detailed information. We will be investigating this situation,” Edwards said. 

Senior Assistant Town Moderator Brian Shaughnessy played a leadership role in the November 2020 general election and now admits that he — and not the Attorney General’s Office — is the source of the decision to keep the mishandled ballots secret from the public and town council. But on Wednesday, he told NHJournal he was completely unaware of the discovery of any additional ballots or a second snafu.

“I’m a volunteer that gets appointed at the election,” he said. “I would not normally be kept in the loop.”

The town enacted a series of election reforms after the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office investigated, Shaughnessy said. He blamed the issues from 2020 on the unprecedented number of absentee ballots cast during the pandemic election. 

“It was a unique situation with 7,700 absentee ballots,” he said. “We generally don’t need 50 volunteers to open envelopes.”

At last week’s Town Council meeting, Shaughnessy insisted he and the other election officials “did the right thing” by keeping the story about the 190 ballots a secret for nearly a year. 

“We don’t work for you,” was Shaughnessy’s answer when councilors asked why elected representatives of Bedford’s citizens were left in the dark. Klein acknowledged those voters “were disenfranchised,” but he stood by the decision not to inform them.

Developing….

A year after the election that swept President Donald Trump out of office and New Hampshire Republicans into power, some 190 ballots cast by Bedford voters remain uncounted, NHJournal has learned.

The misplaced absentee ballots, which were discovered just days after the November 3, 2020 election, were kept secret from Town Council and the voters impacted for a year.

Town officials claim in a letter sent to the disenfranchised voters they kept the blunder secret under orders from the state Attorney General’s office, then headed by AG Gordon MacDonald.

The AG’s office disputes that claim.

“In reviewing this matter, this Office concludes that these 190 absentee ballots would not have impacted the outcome of any of the races on the ballot in Bedford during the 2020 general election,” Myles Matteson of the Attorney General’s office wrote Bedford town officials in a letter dated October 21, 2021. A copy of that letter is being sent to the 190 or so residents who cast votes last November by Bedford Town Clerk Sally Kellar and Town Moderator William Klein.

Those ballots remain unopened and uncounted.

According to Matteson, the existence of the uncast absentee ballots was discovered soon after the election.

“Deputy Clerk [Gloria] Mac Vane was reconciling the number of ballots distributed with the number of ballots cast. During this process, she discovered that there was a difference of approximately 190 fewer ballots cast than the number distributed. The amount of absentee ballots recorded received was 7,917. The total number of absentee ballots recorded cast was 7,727,” Matteson wrote.

“On November 8, 2020, Deputy Clerk MacVane attributed the cause of this discrepancy to a mistake made during the processing of absentee ballots on election day [sic].”

Because the ballots were kept secret, they were also kept out of the Bedford recount in the state Senate District 9 race between then-incumbent Jeanne Dietsch and newly-elected Republican Denise Ricciardi. That recount was held on November 1o, after the uncast ballots were discovered.

Dietsch called off the recount when the results began to benefit Ricciardi. Ricciardi’s official victory as reported by the Secretary of State’s office was 17,920 to 17,511, but that doesn’t include changes discovered in the uncompleted recount.

Why weren’t the ballots simply counted on November 8? Why was their existence kept secret? Why weren’t they used in the recount?

Kellar and Klein point the finger at the Secretary of State and Attorney General.

“When we discovered [the uncast ballots], we immediately reported it to the New Hampshire Secretary of State,” they wrote in their letter to the impacted Bedford voters. “We were advised to keep these ballots secure and to wait further instructions before taking any further action. The following week, we were informed that the matter had been referred to the NH Attorney General’s office for investigation. The Attorney General requested some information from us and we submitted it on November 19, 2020.

“We were told not to discuss this with anyone, not even the town council because it was a pending investigation,” Kellar and Klein said.

Officials in the AG’s office say they never instructed the town to keep the incident secret from either the Town Council or the general public.

This story is unfolding with the ongoing debate over the legitimacy of the 2020 election in the background. Political insiders with knowledge of the events speculate that decisions made by the Attorney General’s Office may have been influenced by events in Windham when voting machine error caused a significant error in the first results reported. Supporters of Trump’s frequently-repeated (and frequently debunked) claims the election was stolen due to widespread election fraud have used the Windham incident to support their calls for a statewide election audit in New Hampshire.

“The Attorney General’s Office saw this unfolding and they didn’t want to add fuel to the fire,” one source suggested.

MacDonald is currently serving as Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

NOTE: This story has been updated to include new information revealed by the Attorney General’s office, and later confirmed by town officials.