As New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan predicts record voter turnout for this year’s election, local polling places are preparing with extra volunteers and seeing high numbers of absentee ballots and new registrations.

Scanlan has predicted that up to 824,000 of New Hampshire’s registered voters will be participating in this year’s election, which would be a record high, according to a press release issued by his office. The state is also anticipating a high number of same-day registrations across the state, particularly after a checklist verification in 2021, when inactive voters names were removed from checklists due to inactivity.

Bob Romeril, the moderator for New Ipswich, said the town has seen almost 150 new registered voters between the primary election and now, and a high volume of absentee ballots – with about 7% of the New Ipswich electorate voting absentee. Under New Hampshire law, processing absentee ballots shall begin at 1 p.m. on election day, unless a different time, no earlier than two hours after the polls opening, is posted and announced. Romeril said New Ipswich, due to the high volume of absentee ballots, took that route, and will begin processing its absentee ballots at 9 a.m., as soon as legally allowed.

“Event if each ballot only took a minute each, that’s still five hours worth of work, and that’s with nothing else interrupting,” Romeril said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

Romeril said the town has enough ballots for every single registered voter in town, even accounting for the number of absentee voters and an anticipated number of new registrants. The town will have an extra six ballot clerks and a greeter for voters all day, for a total of a 30% increase in the usual number of volunteers for an election.

“It’s going to be very busy,” said Jaffrey Town Clerk Kelly Rollins. She said the office had already received about 275 absentee ballots as of the end of last week, and has been fielding calls from residents who have questions about how to register or how to vote.

“We’ve essentially doubled up on volunteers,” Rollins said, noting that Jaffrey will have extra greeters directing people where to go, and four tables for checking in voters instead of the usual three.

Greenville Moderator Marshall Buttrick said Greenville is anticipating similar numbers to the election four years ago, and has seen more requests for absentee ballots than usual.

In Greenfield, Supervisor of the Checklist Linda Dodge said they expect to see a lot of new registrations on election day.

“Tomorrow is the day that we will see a real big spike in registering people to vote. Since people can register to vote on election day, a lot of people just wait until then,” she said.

Antrim Supervisor of the Checklist Bill Bryk said Antrim has not seen an unusual number of new registrations.

“So far, there has been nothing unusual. Recently when the supervisors met, we had upwards of 75 new voter registrations, which is not at all unusual in a presidential election year,” Bryk said. “That is the thing with presidential elections; people pay attention.”

Bryk noted that New Hampshire does not have early voting other than absentee ballots.

Walter Turner of Bennington, who has been a supervisor of the checklist since 1994, said he “did not have a good read on this election yet.”

“The town clerk’s office has had a lot of absentee ballots, which is an indicator pointing towards higher turnout on election day, Turner said. “My non-scientific read is that this is going to be a big one. Same-day registration has consistently helped keep our turnout high, especially on presidential primary election days and general election days. It’s a great system that works well by allowing everyone who is eligible to vote to participate fully.”

Francestown Town Clerk Pamela Finnell said so far, she had seen nothing unusual about registration in Francestown.

“The numbers we have are common during a presidential election,” Finnell said.