Voter Fraud in New Hampshire? Trump Has No Proof and Many Skeptics
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEFEB. 13, 2017


Voters cast their ballots in Loudon, N.H., in November. There is no evidence to support President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the state. Credit Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
During a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators last week, President Trump said he would have won New Hampshire in November if not for thousands of people who he says, without any evidence, were bused in from Massachusetts and voted illegally.

He said the same was true of former Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican, who was seeking re-election and lost the state by an even narrower margin than Mr. Trump. Ms. Ayotte is shepherding Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Neil M. Gorsuch, through the confirmation process, which was the subject of the meeting.

But is there any truth to the president’s assertion, which was first reported by Politico? Lots of prominent Republicans in New Hampshire say it is absurd, one even offering cash to anyone who can produce evidence of a single out-of-state voter.

What is the context for this claim?

Mr. Trump has claimed falsely many times, starting with a Twitter message in November, that he would have won the popular vote if not for the “millions” of undocumented immigrants who voted against him. He has alleged “serious voter fraud” in Virginia, California and New Hampshire. But his remarks last week appear to be the first time as a sitting president that he has claimed the vote in a specific state was fraudulent.

And on Sunday, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, said on ABC’s “This Week”: “I can tell you that this issue of busing voters in to New Hampshire is widely known by anyone who’s worked in New Hampshire politics. It’s very real, it’s very serious. This morning on this show is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence.” To that, Mr. Trump sent out a message on Twitter saying, “Great job!”

What is their evidence?

Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Miller has produced any evidence.

Has anyone outside Mr. Trump’s circle made the same allegation or offered evidence to back it up?

No.

What do state officials say?

While election officials have unearthed isolated instances of voter fraud or people voting improperly in New Hampshire, neither the secretary of state nor the attorney general has found any evidence of fraud on the scale alleged by Mr. Trump.

The Boston Globe reported that the secretary of state, William Gardner, was told on Election Day that the parking lot of a busy precinct was filled with cars with Massachusetts license plates, but when he arrived, he found that the cars belonged to people who were campaigning, not trying to vote.

How did the election in New Hampshire turn out?

Mr. Trump lost the state to Hillary Clinton by 2,736 votes, or 0.3 percent. In the Senate race, Ms. Ayotte lost to Maggie Hassan, the governor at the time, by 743 votes, or 0.1 percent.

Would Mr. Trump have had any recourse in the state?

Because he lost New Hampshire by so few votes, he could have asked for a recount. He did not do so.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/voter-fraud-new-hampshire-gop.html?hpw&rref=us&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well