A City Ward is different from a Town in New Hampshire, although both appear to be similarly
organized. The Ward Moderators, Clerks, and Selectmen only have responsibility to run the
polling places for elections. The City Clerk sets the policies and procedures so that all Wards are
doing it the same. This is important to protect the integrity of our elections. The Ward
Moderator is in charge of their polling location in their Ward on Election Day, but must follow
the lead of the City Clerk.
From my experience, I know it is brutal work that the team does out of love for the city and a
desire to serve.
The reality is that too many of the 45 positions do not even have a candidate, and all too often
the "elected" official wins by a write-in of 1-3 votes. I was chosen to serve in my first term by
the City Clerk because the person elected by write-in vote, resigned, and I had volunteered.
The City Clerk shall attest that making sure each Ward has a full complement of election
officials and Ballot Inspectors for each election is difficult.
The current process is, in my opinion, demeaning to people who just want to volunteer their time
to serve the city. They have to find at least 15 people to sign and witness nominating petitions.
Then the City Clerk's office has to spend time to then certify each of those petitions, and then, if
the candidate falls short, they are not on the ballot. The number for these petitions required is the
same as the number of nominating petitions required to run for Ward Alderman which is a much
more powerful and responsible position.
I know that for the 2017 election, I worked hard to get candidates city-wide to run for these
election offices and too many of them gave up because of the requirement to submit so many
nominating petitions.
In contrast, if a candidate wishes to run as a State Representative, the candidate can either pay $2
or submit 5 nominating petitions.
My request is that we make it easier for someone to run for these Ward election offices and make
the requirement be the same as the requirement for becoming a State Representative.
I propose that the charter change for this be to simply say that the requirement to get on
the ballot be the same as the requirement to get on the ballot as a State Representative.
Improvements for Running Elections in Nashua.
I would like to ask you to consider these realities involving election officials. I believe all of
these suggestions can be implemented by the Board of Aldermen alone.
1. The number of ballot inspectors that the city allows assumes the election laws of long ago. We
now have a requirement to have election staff to photograph voters who do not present a photo
ID. At all partisan primaries, we have to have at least one, usually two, members of the election
