Merrimack's School District and Town have two chances for residents to effect a local election. The first is the Deliberative Session. This is where articles are discussed and sometimes changed by the voters present at that meeting. The Deliberative Session is more akin to the Annual Meeting style of voting. Anyone may attend, but only registered voters may request changes or vote on any issues that are brought up.

Voting on the articles happens on Election Day. This is when registered voters select candidates for local offices and say yes or no to articles listed on the ballot.

The gory details of the process, as defined by the State, can be found in TITLE LXIII ELECTIONS, CHAPTER 659 ELECTION PROCEDURE under Conduct of Voting

If you have voted in the Town in the past few years and have not moved, you already know your polling place. If you have moved, or are new to the Town use the Town Clerk's page on the Town's website to determine which of the three precincts you need to go to vote. If you go to the wrong location, you will NOT be able to vote, no matter what time you show up.

The polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

If you have moved within the past several months, you may want to contact the Town Clerk's office to determine which polling place you should be using.

You can register to vote on election day at your polling place.

If you know you are not going to be around, visit the Absentee Ballot Page for more information.

Please note that the election day processes for Covid protocols have not yet been added to this site.

Please follow the posted guides as you enter (with a mask on) your polling location.

When you enter the polling place the first table you see is for voter registration. If you are already registered to vote, you can walk by this table and look for several tables letters such as A-K, L-P, Q-Z either on the front of them or hanging above them. The tables will have books laid out on them. Find the right line based on your last name and check-in. The Ballot Inspector will ask you your last name, first name, and street address.

Be kind to those people, some of them didn't learn their alphabet very well (OK, I'm speaking for myself when I lend a hand!). They may ask you to repeat your name a few times; those locations often have a lot of background noise.

Once your name is found and checked off you will be handed the Town and School ballots. They will usually be two different colors and can be multiple pages.

Behind the check-in tables you will see rows of voting booths. Find an empty one (look for feet).

If you are handicapped or need some assistance in casting your ballot, please inform the Ballot Inspector at the Check-in table and they will find an assistant moderator to help you. There are two large booths available to make voting easier for voters with disabilities. One is simply large enough for a wheel chair to roll in and the second booth has a standard table, which will accommodate a wheelchair, a desk light, and special voice activated equipment to enable visually impaired voters to vote. At this time, the voice activated voting equipment is not available for local elections. Ask at the check-in table if you wish to use this booth.

Darken in the ovals next to your selection using the pen. Completely fill in the oval to make sure the ballot counting machine can determine your choice.

As unusual as this sounds, State Law requires you to mark your ballot within a voting booth.

When voting for candidates, the ballot will have the statement Vote for not more than followed by the number of slots open for that position.

You are not required vote for that number of candidates, or for any candidate. For example, if the position states that there are four open slots, you can vote for none, one, two, three but no more than four of the names listed.

There are always locations on the ballot for voters to write-in the name of a candidate. If you are doing so, please make sure you PRINT the name legibly as they are tabulated by hand and the easier it is to read a name, the faster and more accurate is the final count.

If you make a mistake in marking your ballot, try and complete other pages you have with you and when you come out, head to the ballot counting machines and ask an assistant moderator for a new ballot page. The assistant moderator will take the page you made a mistake on and hand you a new one. You then need to go back into a voting booth to complete that page. You will not be able to take the page you made a mistake on back into the booth with you.

After you are done with all sides and pages handed to you at the check-in table, exit the voting booth. Please leave the pen and take everything else you walked in with out with you. The assistant moderators have the duty of cleaning up the booths after people leave; this includes dealing with such things as coffee cups, newspapers, cheat-sheets, cell phones and little children.

Now head over toward the ballot counting machines.

On election days when there are both School District and Town elections, you will be asked to put the School District ballots into one machine, and the Town into the other.

The machines will be clearly marked and you will usually hear an assistant moderator giving directions.

If you put your ballot in the wrong machine, not to worry, it will be counted correctly. We use separate machines to make it easier at the end of the night to sort town and school ballots.

You can place the pages of your ballots into the ballot counting machine any way you wish. There is no 'up' or 'down' or 'forward' or 'backward' it will correctly determine your vote no matter how it is placed in the machine.

Once in a while, a machine will push a ballot back out, this means it could not read the ballot correctly and often times just feeding it back in will work, but once in a while even that does not work so flipping the ballot (side to side or end to end) and feeding it back in will allow it to read the ballot correctly. If that does not work, an assistant moderator will take your ballot and place it into the side of the machine where it will be hand-counted after the polls have closed.

Your community thanks you.

Town, School District, and Villiage District Moderator Lynn Christensen, Former School Moderator Carolyn Whitlock and Town Clerk Diane Trippett have reviewed and provided input to this document.

Last Edited: March 22, 2021 - Covid block added