HB158 Requiring the secretary of state to review absentee ballot data biennially, forward certain requests to the election law unit for review, and make a report to the general court.
Requiring the secretary of state to review absentee ballot data biennially, forward certain requests to the election law unit for review, and make a report to the general court.
Impact Score — How Does This Bill Affect You?
Overall Impact Score
Concerning
Scale: 1 (harmful) to 10 (beneficial)
Your Wallet
No direct financial costs or benefits to taxpayers are specified; administrative costs of data review and reporting are not quantified.
Your Community
The bill does not directly affect community services, schools, or local infrastructure.
Your Freedom
The bill establishes a review and referral process for existing absentee ballot data without changing voting rights, ballot access, or eligibility requirements.
Status
Signed by Governor Ayotte 07/10/2026; Chapter 281; eff. 7/10/2026
Sponsor
Gregory Hill (R)
The Short Version
This bill requires the Secretary of State to review absentee ballot data after each general election to identify suspicious patterns (particularly multiple requests from the same address) and forward cases to the Department of Justice for investigation, with biennial reporting to the legislature. The primary impact is procedural oversight of election administration with potential modest effects on election security perceptions and investigative workload.
Who's Behind This Bill?
Who Benefits
- ▲ Election security oversight through formalized data review processes
- ▲ Department of Justice Election Law Unit receives structured referrals for investigation
- ▲ General Court receives visibility into patterns identified in absentee voting
Who Pays the Price
- ▼ Secretary of State and election administration staff bear costs of conducting biennial data reviews
- ▼ Department of Justice Election Law Unit bears investigation workload costs
Bill statuses as of October 7, 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.
This bill was auto-scored using AI analysis of the bill text and legislative data. Scores may be refined as we review more bills.