An unknown number of election observers from the U.S. Department of Justice will visit polling locations in Manchester and Nashua during the September 8 state primary election, part of a nationwide push by the Trump administration to monitor for what it calls potential violations of election security.
Local voting officials say they welcome the extra monitoring, and don’t foresee any impact on voters or the tallying of results.
While it has been routine for the federal government under both Democrat and Republican administrations to send observers into local voting precincts to monitor the process, the selection of New Hampshire by the Trump administration comes at a moment of tension: The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office rejected a demand by the federal government to turn over non-public voter rolls last year, leading to a lawsuit that was recently decided in the state’s favor.
It also comes as President Trump continues to make unfounded claims about widespread election tampering.
And while there have been no reported issues involving federal observers in most locations, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, raised concerns following that state’s primary last month. He told the New York Times that visiting Trump administration officials were “aggressive, unexpected, disruptive” toward local voting officials, and said they asked to interview voters and inspect machines.
In New Hampshire, any member of the public can observe the registration of new voters, or watch the tabulation of results. They must, however, remain behind the guardrail which cordons off where votes are cast.
Federal officials do not have any special authority to cross beyond the guardrail, according to Manchester’s city clerk Matthew Normand. He said he has received no additional information about when and where monitors may show up next Tuesday, but that he has no concerns.
“We expect this will be no different than past elections, where people come away with a good feeling about how the elections are run in Manchester and across the state,” said Normand.
Officials from Nashua said they also don’t anticipate any issues with the federal monitors.
“We are preparing for [the] election the same way we always do,” said Daniel Healy, Nashua’s city clerk.
A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office said it hasn’t received any additional information from the federal government, and reiterated that “election monitors are subject to the same rules as any other public observer.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, federal observers went to nine locations across the country in 2022, while in 2024 that number grew to 27 locations.
This cycle, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Trump administration’s Civil Rights Division, announced six states were selected: Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia. (Wyoming was not included in the original roster.)
In a July video posted to X, Dhillon said the locations were chosen in part because “there may have been some problems in the recent elections.” It isn’t clear what concerns in New Hampshire the government cited.
In Massachusetts earlier this week, 12 election monitors visited polling locations in Boston, Lowell and New Bedford during that state’s primary election.
Dhillon defended sending the monitors, saying that having officials observe elections “helps ensure compliance with federal voting laws and strengthens public confidence in the process.”
