Antrim Town Clerk Diane Chauncey and Peterborough Town Clerk Linda Guyette are used to having state officials visit the polls to make sure all procedures are being properly followed, especially for federal or state elections.

However, a different group dropped by for the state primary Sept. 10 – a contingent led by Secretary of State David Scanlan, the state’s top elections official, and Jen Easterly, director of the national Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

“It was interesting,” Chauncey said.

Scanlan explained that the visit was part of a tour he was taking Easterly on of voting locations throughout New Hampshire. They started in Concord before going to Antrim, Peterborough, Amherst and Manchester Ward 6 before they ended their day in Londonderry.

He said the intent of the tour was to showcase polling places and how New Hampshire elections are run well.

“Jen got to see some small polling places and a very large polling place,” Scanlan said. “We had a great day. It was informative, and New Hampshire did a great job of showing how elections are run in this state.”

Scanlan said elections have become more complex as electronic systems take on a greater role and social media is used to spread misinformation – especially as countries like Russia, Iran and China look to take advantage – so it is important for local, state and federal elections officers to work together to make sure systems are well-protected.

As an example of how well New Hampshire runs elections, Scanlan cited the AI-generated robocall mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice and urged people not to vote in the Democratic presidential primary in January. He said his office responded quickly through local election clerks and social media, and Attorney General John Formella pledged to get to the bottom of the matter.

In May, Steven Kramer of New Orleans was indicted on 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate.

“They really appreciated the way the state dealt with the situation,” Scanlan said.

While in Antrim, Chauncey said Scanlan and Easterly talked to herself, supervisors of the checklist, Moderator Arthur Merrill, ballot clerks and Select Board members.

“They were here probably 20 minutes, maybe even 30, they all seemed to have a good time,” she said.

Guyette said it was a pleasant surprise to see Scanlan.

“He’s a really good secretary of state,” she said.

Guyette and Easterly had never met, but she said the CISA director was nice. She also stressed that there is no way to hack into New Hampshire’s election systems because they are not online and machines are sealed.

As for the primary, where 1,980 out of Peterborough’s 5,236 registered voters (38%) cast ballots, Guyette said it went well, but she’s already thinking about the Nov. 5 general election, which also included the presidential race.

“It’ll be interesting to see what November’s like, but I think it’s going to be really crazy,” she said. “Even now, we see a lot of absentee ballot requests and how soon they’ll be able to vote.”

In particular, Guyette noted the people who moved to New Hampshire from other states who have been asking about early voting or mail voting, neither of which New Hampshire has.