staff to process voters who wish to return to Undeclared.
2. The current requirements for marking the checklist during an election require serious
concentration by the people checking in voters. This requires giving the staff breaks, especially
during busy elections.
3. In my six years as Moderator, the number of checklist books has increased from two (2) in all
elections to a minimum of three (3) and often up to as many as eight (8) for Presidential primary
and general elections. Each checklist book requires a Ballot Inspector or Selectman., all day.
4. The pay for election officials seems to suggest that they are just working on Election Day. The
Selectmen and Ballot Inspectors are currently expected to go through up to 2 hours of training,
up to 2 hours of pre-election ballot counting, about 2 hours of polling place setup, another hour
of pre-election setup on the morning of the election, 14 hours of election, and several hours of
work after the election to process the election. The Clerk and Moderator also have other pre- and
post-election duties. The police officer that now is a constant fixture of the city polling places is
paid much more for his or her time than any of the election officials.
T request you consider that:
* The pay for election officials be increased to recognize value of their service and the actual
time they have to spend.
* The number of allowed ballot inspectors be increased by at least two (2) for all partisan
primaries.
* The City Clerk be authorized to increase the number of ballot inspectors for any election based
on the historical turnout projections to keep the waiting times to check-in as short as possible. In
last year's mid-term election. we had to operate with only 4 books, and the a staff member from
the AG's office inspecting our polling place was strongly critical of the long lines.
* The city add an additional tabulator in each ward so that at high turnout elections, we keep the
lines short for voters waiting to cast their ballot. This is a problem in those elections when a
machine jams or when we need to empty a full box.
* The City recognize that, if the State authorizes, as is expected, more early voting, even "no
cause" absentee voting, that this will mean additional resources needed to process any election.
Thank you for considering,
John B. Lisle, Moderator, Ward 8
68 Bluestone Drive, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060
603-888-3333
603-324-9110 (cell)
