Ballot Problems Surface In State Contract Vote

As a 12-year veteran of New Hampshire government, Jen Hosue has voted on a few state contracts, and she knows the drill: The State Employees Association (SEA) mails each worker a ballot and a return envelope. But this time things were a little different.

"I got the contract with all the changes, and I got ballot. I got two of them, so I just voted on both of them and sent them back in the envelope because I wasn’t sure what to do with them."

At this point it’s impossible to know how many of the more than 6000 workers sent ballots may have marked more than one, but Hosue says several of her immediate colleagues also had the chance.

"I’ve heard around the office, that I’m not the only one that got multiple, but nobody knew why."

"There is certainly no conspiracy to try and change the vote on this in any way. What we are seeing is human error pure and simple."

Mike Barwell is spokesman for the SEA. He doesn’t believe ballot irregularities are widespread, and blames sticky ballots, sloppy folding by volunteer envelope stuffers and a jammed printer for any problems. He says the union wants workers who received multiple ballots or multiple packets to notify SEA leaders. He says envelopes that are returned with more than one ballot will be set aside, and would be taken up if only they could alter the vote’s outcome.

"We’re just going to have to do the best we can. You know we don’t feel at this point that the balloting process that we have set in place, we have no indication that it will not continue work as a good process."

Experts in labor law say government tends to give deference to unions to when it comes to the contract ratifications. Mark Broth is an attorney with Devine Millimet. His clients have included the cities of Concord, Dover and Laconia.

"As long as the process that the union follows here is a reasonable process, and there is a fundamental integrity to the vote and outcome, it’s unlikely that you’d see the public labor relations board (plrb) or any other agency try to intervene here."

The feadline for workers to return state contract ballots is October 8th. That's the same day Governor Lynch has said he’ll send out layoff notices that would take effect if the contract fails.