Running for office in Grafton County, New Hampshire.

The short version.

A plain-language guide to county ballot access in all 10 New Hampshire counties, and it opens with the one route that is still available. The filing period for the 2026 election ran June 3 to June 12 and it is long closed. So did every petition route behind it. What is not closed is the write-in, and in New Hampshire the write-in is not a technicality. RSA 659:88 sets the bar for winning a party's nomination by write-in at 35 votes, or 10 percent of that party's ballots, whichever is SMALLER. In a county race that is 35 votes. The state primary is Tuesday, September 8, 2026, no advance registration is required to be written in, and a write-in winner does not even pay the filing assessment.

That door matters more than usual this year because a lot of the county lines on the September 8 ballot are simply blank. On the Secretary of State's own cumulative filing lists as they stood on August 14, 2026, one major party or the other had nobody filed for most county offices in most counties. Carroll County has no Democrat filed for any of its five row offices. Cheshire County has no Republican filed for any of its five. Each county page below carries the specific empty lines for that county, taken from those lists and date-stamped to the day they were read. New Hampshire county office is also the cheapest ballot access in the country: the administrative assessment for a county officer is 10 dollars, or 50 petitions signed by members of your own party.

This page covers that for Grafton County and points you at your local election office for anything specific to your county. It is not legal advice; the official rules live with your election office and the New Hampshire Secretary of State, Elections Division.

Grafton County by the numbers.

New Hampshire election calendar (2026).

New Hampshire runs one statewide calendar and county candidates file with the Secretary of State, not with the county, so these dates are the same in all 10 counties. Every regular route onto the November ballot has now closed, including the one that looks open on paper. Nomination papers are due to the Secretary of State by September 2, but the signatures behind them had to be with your town or city Supervisors of the Checklist by August 5, and RSA 655:19-c, I requires a county-office candidate on that track to have filed a declaration of intent back in the June window. Both of those gates are behind us.

• Wed Jun 3 to Fri Jun 12, 2026Filing period for the 2026 state election -- CLOSED. Declarations of candidacy and declarations of intent, both filed with the Secretary of State for county office (RSA 655:14, RSA 655:15, I).
• Fri Jun 12, 2026, 5:00 p.m.Last day of the filing period -- CLOSED. Filings made on the final day had to be made IN PERSON by the candidate, not by mail (RSA 655:43, II).
• Wed Aug 5, 2026, 5:00 p.m.Last day to submit signed nomination papers to the Supervisors of the Checklist in each town or city -- CLOSED, and it closed nine days before this page was written. This is the real gate on the nomination-paper route, not the September 2 date.
• Wed Aug 26, 2026, 5:00 p.m.Supervisors of the Checklist must have certified the nomination papers by this point. Nothing a candidate can start now reaches this.
• Wed Sep 2, 2026, 5:00 p.m.Last day to file CERTIFIED nomination papers with the Secretary of State (RSA 655:43, I). County office needs 150 nomination papers from the county plus the 10 dollar assessment. Only reachable by somebody already in the process.
• Tue Sep 8, 2026STATE PRIMARY ELECTION (RSA 653:8). This is the live date. A write-in needs 35 votes, or 10 percent of that party's ballots, whichever is smaller, to take the nomination (RSA 659:88, I(a)).
• Mon Sep 14, 2026Deadline for a write-in winner to accept, by filing a declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State -- the first Monday after the primary (RSA 659:88, I(b)). A write-in winner is EXEMPT from the administrative assessment.
• Tue Nov 3, 2026GENERAL ELECTION (RSA 653:7). Write-in votes are counted in the general as well, and a general-election write-in carries no minimum threshold at all -- it is decided by plurality.

One trap worth naming. RSA 655:43, I really does put the nomination-paper deadline at 5 p.m. on September 2, 2026, and read alone that looks like an open door for a county candidate. It is not. RSA 655:19-c, I says in terms that candidates for county officer who file declarations of intent must pay the assessment AND meet RSA 655:40 through 655:45, and the declaration of intent had to be filed during the June 3 to June 12 window. On top of that the signatures were due to the Supervisors of the Checklist on August 5. If you did not file in June, the September 2 date is not yours. Confirm anything you plan to rely on with the Elections Division at 603-271-3242.

Offices on the ballot in Grafton County.

These are the county offices actually on the November 3, 2026 ballot in this county, taken from the Secretary of State's cumulative candidate filing lists for the September 8, 2026 state primary as they stood on August 14, 2026. Read this list rather than assuming your county works like the county next door, because in New Hampshire it may not. The five county row offices are two-year offices in most of the state but four-year offices in Rockingham and Coos, and county commissioner seats are staggered so that not every district is up in every cycle. Where a party line below is marked as having no candidate filed, that is a write-in opening on September 8.

• Sheriff -- ON the November 3, 2026 ballot, a 2-year term. NO REPUBLICAN had filed as of August 14, 2026, so 35 Republican write-in votes takes the nomination under RSA 659:88, I(a).
• County Attorney -- ON the 2026 ballot, a 2-year term. NO REPUBLICAN had filed as of August 14, 2026.
• County Treasurer -- ON the 2026 ballot, a 2-year term, with both parties filed.
• Register of Deeds -- ON the 2026 ballot, a 2-year term, with both parties filed.
• Register of Probate -- ON the 2026 ballot, a 2-year term. NO REPUBLICAN had filed as of August 14, 2026.
• County Commissioner, District 1 -- ON the 2026 ballot. NO REPUBLICAN had filed as of August 14, 2026.
• County Commissioner, District 3 -- ON the 2026 ballot, with both parties filed. Grafton elects one commissioner by the voters of each commissioner district (RSA 653:1, VI).
• NOT on the 2026 ballot in Grafton County -- County Commissioner District 2, which is not carried on the Secretary of State's 2026 filing list.

Statewide and legislative seats covering Grafton County are on the same ballot:

• Governor -- a TWO-year term in New Hampshire, not four (RSA 653:1, I). New Hampshire and Vermont are the only two states that still do this. The administrative assessment is 100 dollars or 200 primary petitions.
• United States Senator -- one of the two New Hampshire seats is on the 2026 ballot. 100 dollars or 200 primary petitions.
• Representative in Congress -- both New Hampshire districts, two-year terms. 50 dollars or 100 primary petitions.
• Executive Councilor -- five districts, two-year terms. The Executive Council is a New Hampshire institution with no real equivalent elsewhere: it approves state contracts, pardons and most senior appointments alongside the Governor. 25 dollars or 50 primary petitions.
• State Senator -- 24 districts, two-year terms. 10 dollars or 20 primary petitions.
• State Representative -- 400 seats, two-year terms, the largest state legislature in the United States and the third largest English-speaking legislative body anywhere. This is the one office on the list that does NOT file with the Secretary of State: state representative candidates file with the clerk of the town or city where they are domiciled. The assessment is 2 dollars, or 5 primary petitions.

Two structural points that apply everywhere in New Hampshire and belong nowhere else on this page. First, your state representatives are also your county legislature. The county commissioners propose the budget under RSA 28, but the county convention -- which is simply the state representatives elected from that county, sitting together as a delegation -- raises the county taxes and appropriates the money under RSA 24:13. Running for State Representative in New Hampshire is therefore also running for a seat on your county's budget authority, which almost nobody mentions. Second, town and city offices are not on this ballot at all. New Hampshire municipal elections and town meeting run on their own calendar, usually in March, and are handled by your town or city clerk.

How to get on the ballot.

New Hampshire county office is the cheapest ballot access in the United States that we have found. Ten dollars, or 50 signatures from members of your own party. There is no filing fee as such -- RSA 655:19 and RSA 655:20, the old fee sections, were REPEALED by 2011, 150:7 and what exists now is an administrative assessment under RSA 655:19-c. Any guide still citing 655:19 or 655:20 is more than a decade out of date. Every regular route for 2026 has now closed. What is open is the write-in, and in New Hampshire that is a serious route rather than a consolation prize.

Primary write-in -- the live door, and it closes when the polls close on September 8, 2026.

This is the route that puts your name in print on the November ballot. RSA 659:88, I(a) says a person whose name was not printed on a party's primary ballot takes that party's nomination on receiving 'at least 35 write-in votes or write-in votes equaling 10 percent or more of the total ballots cast for that party in the state primary election, whichever is smaller.' In a county race the smaller number is essentially always 35. No advance registration of any kind is required to be written in.

General election write-in -- open through the close of polls on November 3, 2026.

A New Hampshire general election is decided by plurality and a general-election write-in carries no minimum vote threshold at all. Whoever has the most votes wins, printed name or not. This is a longer shot than the primary route because you are running against printed names rather than an empty line, but it costs nothing and requires no filing in advance.

Declaration of candidacy -- CLOSED for 2026, and this is the shape of the 2028 calendar.

For the record, because this is the route most people mean. You file a declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State during the June filing period, together with a Statement of Financial Interests under RSA 15-A, and you either pay the administrative assessment or file primary petitions instead.

Nomination papers -- CLOSED, including the part that looks open.

The nomination-paper route is how a candidate outside the two major parties reaches the November ballot: 150 nomination papers from the county for a county office, signed by any registered voter, plus the 10 dollar assessment. The deadline to file the certified papers with the Secretary of State is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, September 2, 2026 (RSA 655:43, I), which is still ahead of us and is why this route gets misreported as open. It is not open. The signatures had to reach the Supervisors of the Checklist in each town or city by 5 p.m. on August 5, 2026 and be certified by August 26, and RSA 655:19-c, I requires a county-office candidate on this track to have filed a declaration of intent during the June 3 to June 12 window. If you did not file in June, this route is not available to you in 2026.

Statutory references: RSA 655:15, I -- for governor, United States senator, representative in Congress, councilor, state senator AND COUNTY OFFICE, filings go to the SECRETARY OF STATE. There is no county filing office in New Hampshire. Only state representative and delegate candidates file with a town or city clerk. · RSA 655:19-c -- administrative assessment, NOT a filing fee. County officer 10 dollars, or 50 primary petitions signed by members of the candidate's own party. RSA 655:19 and RSA 655:20 were REPEALED by 2011, 150:7, effective Aug. 7, 2011. · RSA 653:1, V -- sheriff, county attorney, county treasurer, register of deeds and register of probate are elected for TWO-year terms, except that officers in ROCKINGHAM county have been elected to four-year terms since the 2022 general election and officers in COOS county since the 2024 general election. · RSA 653:1, VI -- county commissioners. Eight counties elect one commissioner by the voters of each commissioner district; CARROLL and SULLIVAN elect district-designated commissioners at large by all the voters of the county. Several counties rotate a four-year seat, so not every district is up in every cycle. · RSA 659:88, I -- 35 write-in votes, or 10 percent of that party's ballots, whichever is SMALLER, takes a primary nomination; the winner files a declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State by the first Monday after the primary and pays no assessment. · RSA 655:40 to 655:45 -- nomination papers, 150 from the county for county office, signed by any registered voter, filed with the Secretary of State by 5 p.m. on September 2, 2026, but gated behind a June declaration of intent under RSA 655:19-c, I and an August 5 deadline to the Supervisors of the Checklist. · RSA 654:31, IV -- the Secretary of State SHALL, upon request, provide to a candidate for county, state or federal office a list of every registered voter in the state or in the candidate's district, with name, domicile address, mailing address, town or city, voter history and party affiliation.. Fees and signature counts change; confirm before you file.

The Grafton County Commissioners Office.

New Hampshire has no county election office, and this is the office you will deal with for everything except filing. Candidate filings for county office go to the Secretary of State's Elections Division in Concord (603-271-3242). Elections themselves are run by town and city clerks and by the Supervisors of the Checklist in each municipality, who are also the people who certify nomination-paper signatures. What the county commissioners office below can tell you is the thing nobody else can: the boundaries of your commissioner district, which seats are up, and how the county budget actually works.

Grafton County's offices are at the county complex on Dartmouth College Highway in North Haverhill, the county seat. The county serves the same website on three domains, so co.grafton.nh.us, grafton-county.com and graftoncountynh.gov all reach the same place. The Grafton County Delegation, made up of the county's state representatives, appropriates the county budget under RSA 24:13.

Contact details verified 2026-08-14. Official statewide sources: New Hampshire Secretary of State: Running for Office (assessments, nomination papers, every 2026 deadline) · New Hampshire Secretary of State: 2026 Election Details (cumulative candidate filings, declarations of intent, withdrawals) · New Hampshire Secretary of State: Elections Division · RSA 653:1 -- which offices are elected, and the Rockingham and Coos four-year exceptions · RSA 655:19-c -- the administrative assessment and primary petitions · RSA 659:88 -- the 35-vote write-in nomination rule · RSA 654:31 -- availability of the checklist and voter information.

Common questions.

After you qualify: the field operation.

Three things about New Hampshire change how a county campaign is run. First, the county is not the organising unit -- the town is. Ballots are printed by municipality, the checklist is kept by municipality, signatures are certified by municipal Supervisors of the Checklist, and results are reported by town and ward. Cut your turf by town and every piece of paperwork lines up behind it. Second, the numbers are small enough that door knocking decides races outright. A 35-vote write-in threshold and county commissioner districts of a few thousand households mean an organised candidate with a list and a pair of shoes is genuinely competitive. Third, New Hampshire gives you almost nothing to phone or text with. The state checklist carries no phone number and no email address, so the door is not one channel among several -- it is the channel.

That is the part Motion51 was built for. You scope your district, cut turf, and send volunteers out with a phone instead of a clipboard. It works offline, so canvassing does not stop where the cell signal does, and every door is logged with a timestamp for your records. Our For Candidates page walks through what that looks like.

Counties next to Grafton.

Running in a district that crosses a county line? Each of these has its own guide.

See all New Hampshire counties →