In an effort to deflect public criticism alleging that Hooksett’s handling of the state primary vote was mismanaged, Supervisor of the Checklist Frank Gray submitted his resignation during the Hooksett Town Council at their meeting on Sept. 24.

“I don’t like to quit,” Gray said. “What happened here, I can’t answer. But I don’t believe for a moment anyone tried to interfere with voters. We’ve all had training.”

And although the councilors may still be scratching their heads over exactly what went wrong during the primaries, they were also informed that a part-time assistant has been hired to clear any errors on the checklist of registered voters before Election Day, Nov. 4.

Gray, who was chairman of the three elected supervisors of the checklist in January, was accused of failing to reassign party affiliations for dozens of Hooksett voters immediately after the presidential primaries.

As a result, a number of voters who thought they were registered as independent had been, in fact, affiliated with the party they chose to support during January. They were allowed to vote in the state primary on Sept. 9, but only for the ticket they voted with eight months earlier.

Arlene Longfellow, the current chairman of the supervisors of the checklist for Hooksett, said the errors on the checklist rubbed many voters the wrong way.

“People didn’t get changed over (to independent),” said Longfellow, wife of Town Councilor George Longfellow. “It made them upset and I don’t blame them. If I couldn’t vote the way I wanted to, I’d be upset too.”

Three complaints have been officially filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for enforcing voting laws.

Gray, who claimed responsibility for the errors because he was chairman at the time of the presidential primaries, said partial blame could be placed on the computer system that tracks registered voters across the state. He said the supervisors have had problems with the system in the past and he thinks the program “executed through the federal Helping Americans Vote Act” is a gateway to encourage fraudulent voting.

“The system that they have is flawed,” he said. “I don’t know if I did something wrong. Did the computer system mess up again like it has before? I don’t think there is any way of knowing.”

Robert Ehlers, also a supervisor of the checklist, told the Town Council that he and Arlene Longfellow are invested in making sure Election Day runs smoothly.

“We are really gearing up for this next election,” said Ehlers, also co-chairman of the local Democratic Party. “We’re going to have a good (check) list.” Town Clerk Leslie Nepvue said her office, with the help of the new part-time assistant, is making sure the registered voter checklist is completely up to date and accurate.

Typographical errors, address changes, party status changes, deceased voters and duplicates on the list are being corrected, she said.

“We’re going right down, soup to nuts, to make sure it’s all clear,” Nepvue said.