There are elected officials in sleek business attire and slightly rumpled poll workers. There are voting rights activists and amateur election sleuths and curious members of the public.
They have come together for an unusual experiment aimed at bolstering faith in American democracy. At a time of deepening distrust, they are here both to speak and to listen.
Since May, the New Hampshire Special Committee on Voter Confidence has traveled the length of the state holding public hearings that are part civics roadshow, part airing of grievances.
The committee’s stated goal is to identify the causes of the decline in voter confidence and recommend ways to reverse it. Left unstated is the unprecedented nature of the current moment, where former president Donald Trump and Republican candidates continue to deny the outcome of the 2020 election.
Embedded in the bipartisan exercise in New Hampshire is a fundamental tension: Can you reassure voters that the electoral process is sound while providing skeptics a forum for their concerns?
Each session has explored a different facet of elections. Experts have explained how ballot-counting machines work. Election officials have discussed procedures and training. Academics have shared research on voter fraud.
Then the proceedings are opened to public comments. Some speakers come prepared to offer detailed policy prescriptions, or impassioned defenses of the system, or equally fervent accusations of fraud. Others share off-the-cuff...
Vadodara/Surat. A special CBI court has convicted four individuals in a 23-year-old fire insurance fraud case in Gujarat and sentenced each of them to three years of rigorous imprisonment. The cou...