FACT CHECK: Did Maggie Hassan Win 1,100 Votes In A Town Of 700 People?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter
A post shared on Facebook claims New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan won 1,100 votes in a town of 700 people.


Verdict: Misleading

Hassan won 106 votes, while her opponent, Republican senatorial candidate Don Bolduc, received 203 votes. While an initial report did suggest Hassan won 1,106 votes, it was caused by a typo that was corrected by the New Hampshire Secretary of State.

Fact Check:

Hassan defeated Bolduc with 53.6% of the vote to her challenger’s 44.4%, according to Politico. Bolduc later conceded on election night to Hassan, but did not concede to her directly before addressing supporters, the Concord Monitor reported.

The Facebook post claims that Hassan won 1,100 votes in a town with a population of 700 people. (RELATED: Were 52% Of Votes For John Fetterman From Mail-In Ballots?)

Election results from the Secretary of State’s office did initially show Hassan had 1,106 votes in Columbia, New Hampshire, according to The Associated Press. Columbia has a population of 659, per the 2020 census.

However, the discrepancy happened due to human error on the part of Columbia clerk Marcia Parkhurst, according to The Associated Press. She later corrected the error, the outlet reported.

“Apparently when I was transferring the results from one copy to the copy that I was going to send to the SOS, I wrote the “1” twice,” Parkhurst said to The Associated Press. “Obviously with only 309 votes cast, there couldn’t possibly be 1,106 votes for one person.”

Results available on the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s website show Hassan with 106 votes and Bolduc with 193 votes. The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office provided Check Your Fact with a Nov. 14 statement that said the number was the result of a typo.

“Following General Election night, the Secretary of State’s Office originally reported that US Senate candidate Maggie Hassan received 1,106 votes in the town of Columbia, Coos County based on information submitted on the official ‘Return of Votes’ form,” the statement reads. “The reported number far exceeded the number of ballots actually cast in the town. The Secretary of State has confirmed with the town clerk of Columbia that Senator Hassan only received 106 votes on election night. The original figure entered was a simple typo.”

The statement further reads, “Senator Hassan’s adjusted vote total for Coos County is 6,059 while Republican candidate Donald Bolduc received a total of 6,491 votes. Hassan remains the winner of the US Senate race.”

Claims of irregular election activity has circulated widely on social media following the 2022 midterm elections. Check Your Fact recently corrected a video that claimed to show a Texas poll worker adding hundreds of votes shortly after poll closings.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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