Vote-counting machine foes hoped for a surge of success in New Hampshire. They got barely a ripple

By NICK PERRY and HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press

HOPKINTON, N.H. (AP) — The latest effort to force the hand-counting of ballots in New Hampshire has fallen flat. Followers of MyPillow founder and Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell initially hoped to gather enough petitions to bring the topic up at 55 annual town meetings this month. They succeeded in getting the issue before voters in 23 towns, but it was approved in only one of them. The push for hand-counting ballots has been gaining popularity across rural America in response to unfounded claims of widespread fraud tied to ballot-counting machines following the 2020 election. There is no evidence that machines were tampered with, and such claims have repeatedly been rejected by election experts, prosecutors and judges.