Aspiring spoiler in New Hampshire’s US Senate race scrambles to salvage independent candidacy

The clock is ticking for independent candidates in New Hampshire to collect enough signatures to qualify for the general election ballot, as their deadline to submit signed nomination papers to local voter checklist supervisors is less than six weeks away.

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Those who collect enough valid signatures and navigate all the procedural rigamarole will have their names placed on the November ballot, alongside the Republican and Democratic nominees. That feat is easier said than done — especially for one declared candidate whose preliminary paperwork was rejected by the state’s top election officials.

Aaron Day, a political activist who has made an electoral splash in the past, had publicly announced his campaign for US Senate. But when he submitted a declaration of his intended candidacy, the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office concluded he wasn’t qualified.

An office spokesperson said Day didn’t meet the requirements spelled out in state law because he was not a registered voter in the town where he resides, as of the candidate filing period, which closed on June 12. That’s why the office omitted him from the list of who filed their declarations of intent to run for various state and federal positions.

Day contends he meets all the qualifications to serve as a US senator, and the state is blocking his ballot access based on an unconstitutional technicality after he moved from Bedford to Nashua without updating his voter registration prior to the filing period.

In , Day says the secretary of state’s office rejected his first declaration of intent on June 11 because his voter registration didn’t match his domicile. He then updated his voter registration, but the office rejected his second declaration on June 12 because the switch in his registration wouldn’t be finalized until approved by the checklist supervisors, which left him with no way to rectify the mismatch.

Day hasn’t given up. He also appealed to the Ballot Law Commission, which is to hear his case on Monday.

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New Hampshire Public Radio reported earlier on Day’s lawsuit and appeal to the Ballot Law Commission.

While independent candidates often campaign without garnering much attention, Day’s situation has the potential to stand out, largely because of the role he played in New Hampshire’s 2016 election, when he finished third in the US Senate race. He came nowhere near winning, but his small share of the vote (2.40 percent) was far larger than Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan’s slim margin of victory over Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte (0.14 percentage points), which made Day look like a spoiler.

Day has been saying his presence on the ballot in 2026 would undermine Republican candidate John E. Sununu in the same way.

Sununu, who has been endorsed by President Trump, appears to be leading in the GOP primary against Scott Brown. In the Democratic primary, Representative Chris Pappas appears to have a commanding lead over Karishma Manzur.

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