Latest out of NH recount: DIEBOLD MISCOUNTS REPORTED ACROSS MANY CANDIDATES, WARDS, IN FIRST DAY OF ELECTION CONTEST HAND COUNTS
Posted January 17th, 2008 by RON2008
output
LATEST OUT OF NH: Disparities being found during hand-counts of ballots, in many wards, many candidates. Diebold op-scan memory cards unaccounted for at the moment, Secretary of State (SoS) doesn't track them after elections, doesn't track error reports during elections. LHS Associates (see below) handles all of it instead, according to reports on the ground. Public records request reveals hundreds of ballots in one area scanned as blank due to incorrect ink used on ballots, and other problems on LHS problem report forms.
Numbers are now being posted from both the Democratic and Republican hand-counts in the NH Primary Election contest. So far, only wards in Manchester (Hillsborough County) have been hand-counted, and disparities between the original counts from the Diebold optical-scan machine and the hand inspections seem to be occurring in many wards, and for many candidates.
Here is the SoS Recount page with the totals, that I haven't yet been able to review in full.
While sources on the ground at the counting today have told me that officials were not announcing the originally counted results at the counting room, the SoS web page lists what they claim are the original counts --- previously verified by nobody --- versus the recounted numbers.
The disparities, as I've quickly been able to review them, are small, but consistent, in ward after ward, across almost all of the candidates. I'm told that the manufacturers of the optical-scan machines (in this case, Diebold) have estimated an expected error rate of 1% on this type of tallying device which, as noted by one of our contacts in NH, is ridiculous, if you consider that most states and counties only kick in "automatic recounts" when the margin between the two leading candidates is less than .5% or so.
ADDITIONALLY...Public records requests are being made on the spot, for errors and malfunctions at various voting precincts. An early review of the error forms turned over from the public record request made by Election Integrity experts overseeing the counting, has revealed that in Stratham there were some 550 ballots that were not read by the op-scan at all. They were seen as blank ballots. Officials there noticed the problem, and then hand-counted some 3000 ballots after the error was discovered.
Apparently, as we've seen elsewhere, voters were given the wrong pen to use and the op-scanners did not "see" this particular type of ink.
Some of the election day error and incident reports, as read to me over the phone just now by Susan Pynchon of Florida Fair Elections Coalition and Paddy Shaffer of Ohio Election Justice Campaign, both of whom are on the ground in NH overseeing the counts, and assisting Republican contest candidate Albert Howard...
(Town of Stratham, 9:00pm)
PROBLEM: Printout indicated 550 "blank voted" ballots which indicated that bad pens were used.
SOLUTION: Went to Stratham to confirm that approximately 15 bad pens were used on election day. The town had, by that time, hand counted and announced those results as official.
PROBLEM: Too many blanks, used wrong marking pens
SOLUTION: Sent Gerry and Tina with lucid machines.
(Town of Lebanon, precinct #2, 9:00 (am or pm?))
PROBLEM: Corrupt Count.
SOLUTION: Shut off and back on. Count back to 155.
(Town of Manchester, 9:30pm)
PROBLEM: P/U 3rd Bad Machine per John S. (likely refers to John Silvestro, owner of LHS)
SOLUTION:
I spoke with Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org, who is also on the ground in NH, and she asks: "If it wasn't 550 ballots, but just 55 or so in some places, would they even have seen it and known to recount ALL of the ballots?"
She also noted that the error report came from LHS Associates, the private company (with the, um, less-than-reputable background) that is the sole Diebold vendor, programmer, operator and service provider in NH and most of the other New England states.
LHS, apparently, is the one responsible for tracking (or not) and reporting (or not) any such errors, rather than the Secretary of State or local election officials, it would seem. That tracks with previous BRAD BLOG reporting on LHS, and how they operate in Connecticut, where there are similar concerns for whether or not the SoS even knows what the error rates are for the system they use, since problem reports are given to LHS instead of to public officials.
The BRAD BLOG has reported within the past few days machine problems during the election in a number of towns. In fact, of the first four towns we called that used the Diebold machines, all four reported machine failures of one type or another.
FURTHER...Voting Rights attorney John Bonifaz, legal director of VoterAction.org, was on the scene today, and just told me that he has great concerns about the transparency of both the initial election and the hand-count auditing process that got under way in earnest today.
"I'm very concerned that this is not a fully transparent process that is happening there," he told me.
The sensitive memory cards containing the programming and tabulation from the Diebold optical-scanners are apparently "missing in action" for the moment. Those cards, as viewers of HBO's Hacking Democracy know by now, may be used to hack an election, such that only a proper hand-count of the paper ballots afterwards will reveal the hack. (See the video of that hack for yourself right here. The same exact machine being hacked in that film was used across the state to count 80% of the ballots in NH in last week's primary.)
And yet, says Bonifaz who spent time today speaking with New Hampshire Secretary of State, Assistant Secretary of State and Deputy Attorney General, nobody seems to have any idea where those cards are and what has become of them.
He says he was told by Secretary of State William Gardner that his office doesn't get involved in tracking what happens to those memory cards. Some have reportedly been returned to LHS, and may have had their memory erased already.
"When you have a private company counting 80% of the votes, and you later learn that the memory cards are unaccounted for, you have a serious question about the transparency and accountability in that process," Bonifaz said.
He notes that federal law requires all materials from elections be preserved for 22 months after the election. So if those materials have already been lost, destroyed, or over-written, there are legal questions that must be addressed.
Bonifaz also noted that while representatives and observers for the Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich campaigns were on site, nobody at all seemed to be there from either the Barack Obama or John Edwards camps. (Incredibly enough, I might add!)
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"As gray-haired counters sorted piles of ballots at the New Hampshire State Archives yesterday, calling out a soft din of Edwards-Obama-Clinton, Secretary of State Bill Gardner stood in the back of the room, puzzling over a printout from a blog.
The recount of Democratic presidential primary ballots - soon to be joined by a Republican recount - entered its second day yesterday, a process in which temporary workers, many of them retirees, count each ballot by hand. Observers from campaigns and a few video-camera-wielding freelancers carefully tracked the proceedings. So far, poring through Hillsborough County, the counters adjusted ward-by-ward totals by no more than a handful of votes apiece.
The recount has generated intense interest from election-integrity skeptics nationwide, including the blogger whose work was vexing Gardner yesterday.
"Disparities being found during hand-counts of ballots, in many wards, many candidates," wrote Brad Friedman on the "Brad Blog" (writing from Oakland, Calif., where he was attending the premiere of Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections). The blog quoted a lawyer who'd visited the recount who said he worried that it was "not a fully transparent process."
"If this isn't transparent . . ." Gardner said, raising his eyebrows and gesturing to the tables of counters and observers. "What could we do to make it more transparent!"
As of yesterday, Gardner had received 423 e-mails about the recount, many with subject lines like "Vote Fraud" and "recount please!!!" A fax from Missouri told Gardner that if he didn't allow a recount, "I would support Federal troops putting you personally under arrest for obstruction of your state's voting regulations."
The rhetoric contrasted starkly with the quiet scene at the archives, where a state trooper accompanied a hand truck loaded with ballots into the room and where Betty Lund-Finan, a 74-year-old ballot clerk from Bow, counted ballots into neat piles, nodding her head with each flip of a page.
"We usually hit right on the button, and we don't check the sheets until we're done," said Lund-Finan's counting partner, Rosalie Hanson, 73, of Pembroke.
The Democratic recount was called by presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio representative who garnered about 1 percent of the vote. In a letter, Kucinich cited differences between the hand-counted and machine-counted ballots and noted the distance between opinion polls in the leadup to the primary and the results. Sen. Barack Obama led several pre-election polls by a wide margin, but Sen. Hillary Clinton narrowly won the vote.
Yesterday, Kucinich's team was reserved. Manny Krasner, a bushy-mustached "country lawyer" from Farmington who was tracking the recount for Kucinich, said they hadn't seen anything suspicious.
"It's a good exercise in democracy," Krasner said. This week, the campaign submitted a check for $27,000 - less than half the cost of a full recount - allowing a partial recount to begin. Krasner said the campaign hopes that those interested in election integrity would chip in to help pay the full $69,600.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Gardner said he had a chance to inspect the check submitted by little-known Republican presidential candidate Albert Howard, who had requested a GOP recount. The check passed muster, Gardner said, and a Republican recount will go ahead, though he hadn't set a date.
Gardner had to rule on the stumpers among the ballots, and had digital pictures taken of each disputed case.
Atop two piles labeled "anomalies" were ballots marked for both Clinton and Obama. Another ballot had a big check mark next to every candidate's name. One voter didn't fill in any of the bubbles, but drew a small arrow next to Clinton's name - enough, Gardner ruled, to count that as a vote for Clinton.
Some seem to indicate indecision until the end: One voter had put a small dot in the Obama circle but had filled in the circle for former senator John Edwards. Then, on the vice president side of the ballot, the voter wrote in "BARACK OBAMA." (Gardner counted that one for Edwards.)"
------ End of article
By LAUREN R. DORGAN
Monitor staff
Black box voting
If any of you have not watched that documentary about Bev Harris and the Diebold machines, i highly recommend that you do. It'll blow you away! I just watched it last night and am still fuming. I intend to get very active in these processes. Someone should be going to jail!
It's a damn good possibility that some one lied and through that lie, we went to war and people are being killed!
I hate to say it....
But being close to someone who was proficient at hacking Direct TV satellite TV access cards. I would venture to say those missing cards, are being overwritten right about now......
We need some satellite hackers ( or more qualified experts) to study the encryption and see if their was manipulation to the cards....
Yea great but.... Has
Yea great but.... Has anyone seen anything on the news about the recount. I haven't. If they don't air it, and "snub" it instead, This recount may accomplish nothing. How do we get more air time about it? Man we need attorneys involved in this, and lots of em. I don't know where to even begin on something like that. I don't know any attorneys.
Don't make Bush
arrest all the Damn Attorneys.
Somebody is going to jail
Somebody is going to jail!! I knew a smelled a rat.
Delayed recount?
If this is true after they forced Mr. Howard to pay in full, unlawfully, within a few days of the request, there is definitely a big problem here. There are already so many discrepencies on several fronts, fraud has become unbelievably obvious.
NH needs "observers" NOW!!
And call SOS office. 603-271-3242. Insist on Mr. Gardner starting the Republican recount NOW!!! See my post below.
he needs help in New
he needs help in New Hampshire NOW WITH CAMERAS
http://mp3.wtprn.com/Albr... (hour 2)
Call NH S.O.S office NOW...
and tell them tell them it is UNACCEPTABLE that we should have to wait until after the Democratic recount is finished (maybe weeks??) before they starting the Republican recount !!! CALL William Gardner S.O.S. office # 603-271-3242. I just got off the phone with Albert Howard (He paid for the Republican recount). The S.O.S. office has already received the money for the Republican recount. They have no reason to delay the recount, unless they need to give some "criminals"
time to tamper with the ballots!! By the way Hillary has a lot of her people there
"observing" the Democratic recount. We need OUR people there too. Please help!!
I HOPE
Someone has already done this?
you have the all candidates
you have the all candidates on the same ballot ?
that seems to beg for trouble..here we have different ballots in different colors
that are hand counted. punching holes LOL
Not the hand counted towns
The hand counted places have pink (Republican) and blue (Democrat)
That is we have a different
That is we have a different ballot for each party (thats the same as for each candidate, since we only vote for parliament) we have maybe 10+ parties to vote for..
no it would still be
no it would still be different ballots... I'm just saying, when you vote, there should be a way to create a carbon copy, so you can physically separate a ballot so it can be counted by 2 parties simultaneously..
I think that in all
I think that in all elections, the ballots should be folded over so you punch through two sheets of paper, then those sheets are separated, and counted by 2 different parties. Then you get two results that should be almost identical--if not, recount, or re-vote.
NH Re-Count
chinkadaro
This is what the Ron Paul revolution is all about for me. We are affecting change. This is about so much more then just the Presidential elections. I want nothing more then to see Ron Paul as President, but I also want to see a dramatic change in this country. I want to take it back. I donated to the re-call, but I'm no hero. The praise goes to the ones who made it happen. I don't fault campaign headquarters either, I trust their decisions and their wisdom. That is what the rest of us are here for, to do the work that needs to be done in whatever capacity that may be. We are all freedom fighters. Keep the word out there and remember not everyone wants a Sovereign America with the Constitution as the law of the land. We have a hard road ahead and can never get discouraged and must always hold our head high and keep bearing the light of truth. Ron Paul Revolution 2008, the new beginning! By the way I am proud to be associated with such a great bunch of real Americans. Keep up the good work.
All of this is sickening and
All of this is sickening and almost makes me ashamed to say that I'm American.
What the h@ll does it even mean to be American anymore?
I hate the sins running rampant among our "leaders" and the way they HATE us and do not have one ounce of goodness in their wicked hearts about our well-being and freedom to live our lives. How dare they!
God WILL show these people one day....
_______________________
*** God bless Ron Paul ***
* Ron Paul For President *
Electronic Ballot/Vote Counting Should be Outlawed... Period!
Paper ballots only and they become public records subject to public scrutiny. No personal information either since you are already registered to cast a vote.
Completely unacceptable.
This is outrageous - the whole country should be up in arms over this. What a complete mess. This needs to stay on top as one of our prioritiies - expose this fraud!!
Exactly what I expected
The machines are flawed but not prejudice. Let us say that there is high % chance of error, something like 2%.
If a given ballot is cast for RP or Mitt it has a 2% chance of error.
What does that mean in practical terms? The more votes a candidate has, the more errors will be attributed to him.
Fixing the error in the machines will help the top vote getting candidates more than the lowest.
If RP got 10,000 votes and 2% were miscounted that is total of 200 votes lost.
If MR got 30,000 votes and 2% were miscounted that is 600 votes miscounted.
I wanted to add
I did not donate to the recount, but respect you guys for charging with your beliefs. I will always stand with you, and respect you liberty to ask and even demand a recount at any cost.
Nice screaming headline
but where's the evidence for "miscounts"??
2454 Democrates Voted compared to only 30 Republicans???????
In Manchester, Ward 1, 2454 Democrats voted compared to 30 Republicans. These numbers are the same across all wards. I find this hard to believe.
Brian
USAF Veteran
They are not
finished counting yet. Manchester is a huge city (ini NH terms), so they have not finished tabulating the recount in those wards, yet. The site should be updated to reflect what they did today. Once that happens we can look at discrepancies. Without question machines should be out,
these are the number for the Democratic re-count .....
I don't know why GOP on there though, maybe write ins?
It’s a beautiful thing
It’s a beautiful thing –
RECOUNT RESULTS SO FAR: http://www.sos.nh.gov/rec...
The media has tried to twist the recount as being part of the conspiracy theorists and some have believed the recount a waste of time (energy that could be spent getting RP votes). The point of all this is not the totals, not any change in the ranking, not more or fewer delegates, not even fraud – IT IS A FAIR VOTE COUNT FOR ALL ELECTIONS (there is no hope without that). I am so elated that there appears to be enough discrepancies within each ward to show these machines do not work. We rely on machines to be accurate 100%, not marginally. We must make a big fuss over this even if the totals “match” there is enough discrepancies in each ward to show these machines cannot be relied on. Lets make sure the MSM does not downplay all these errors. A big thanks to all involved including the State of New Hampshire SOS office.
Well said...
I wholeheartedly agree with this!
Must have be the computers making the original miscounts
But how can that be?
Computers do what they are programmed to do! I smell fraud.
ALL the rest of the states will....
be counted on these discredited machines. South Carolina's primary is in direct violation of it's state's constitution (Article 2 sec.1, "the votes shall not be counted in secret" )They are planning to use touch-screen machines, counting the votes in secret.! We need the "champion of the constitution" Ron Paul, to address this NOW or we see the results from these "rigged" machines placing him in 6th place ( the same as the "fake" media polls )
Keep in mind, number of
Keep in mind, number of voters still does not equal delegate votes. There's a lot of horsetrading that goes into deciding the delegate votes, so I wouldn't expect any of the important numbers to change.
You trust these "discredited" machines?!?
They plan the same fraud that is going on NOW in NH for the rest of the states. It must be stopped NOW!!!
This is staggering evidence!
Is this the democratic process we're trying to sell the world with bombs?
The people running these machines need to brought to answer now!
The American Revolution 2.0 will not be televised... It will be downloaded!!!
On January 17th, 2008
On January 17th, 2008 Citizen Joe says:
Is this the democratic process we're trying to sell the world with bombs?
Great comment, and factually true.
I'm surprised that HQ doesn't seem to care about all this!
He's always missing in action where action is needed!
I just find it mind boggling that the secretary of state doesn't have ANY responsibility for the voting machines and memory cards!
This is so screwed up! We should take action quickly and try and stop the use of machines EVERYWHERE! What can be done that will give us an immediate action on this? A court order? What?
I find it incredible that HQ is not even showing interest in what's going on! They were dead wrong to discard problems in NH and to me that clearly shows lack of leadership all the way up! Yep, that's exactly what I mean and I must say this is my first disappointment in RP! I didn't have any until now!
JB
Are you for real?
All you have to do is read some posts and you will see the wisdom of Dr. Ron Paul to not pursue this recount. It could be a good thing that someone else is doing it, if all can be accounted for. If your "disappointment" is authentic (somehow I doubt it), read below for example of the reasoning not to pursue the issue.
"The election integrity community is abuzz with news that candidate Dennis Kucinich will ask for a recount in New Hampshire, and Ron Paul fans have been pushing him to recount as well. Careful.
NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION INTEGRITY ADVOCATE NANCY TOBI IS CORRECT:
"We have no control over the ballot chain of custody and we have learned the pain from the 2004 Nader recount, in which only 11 districts were counted, chosen by a highly questionable person, and then nothing showed up. Now all we hear is how the Nader recount validated the machines."
As Tobi says, "A candidate asking for a recount may well be a tool used to 'prove' everything was okay and then that candidate will be further discredited."
I'll go further than that. The only way a recount makes any sense at all in New Hampshire is AFTER an assessment is made of the chain of custody issues. If the chain of custody isn't intact the recount won't be worth a cup of warm spit.
TOBI:
"This is high stakes.
"You do not walk into a battle ground not knowing where the snipers are, just because you were invited. Strategically, going into something like this where you have NO CONTROL is foolishness.
"And I say this as one of the strongest recount proponents of former times. Things I have come to learn and understand have changed my mind. The recount is someone else's game, not ours.
"In the recount, we have no control, and we have already lost 48 long hours of ballot chain of custody oversight.
"We need citizen control and oversight. This is not going to come from the recount. If the election was rigged...don't you think the riggers would have a backup Plan B for a rigged recount, knowing how easy it is to get a recount in NH?
No. It is time to take control. "
Oh, yeah, I'm very real!
I'm assuming you're only contesting my last paragraph, the one that says something bad about RP. Oh, sorry, we can't say anything bad about that here, right? Well, you're in denial. I'm the one writing what many have been thinking! Have you looked at the money bomb week? RP supporters requesting a recount were 100% right! And what's RP's plan. Let's call it as is, not the Campaign as if RP isn't heading it! And I am questioning his leadership at this point. So, what am I now, a troll? Can't question RP? What has he become, an idol? Listen close, WE are in charge in a free society not the president! RP is a VEHICLE to the People, not the other way around like many got used to! If you want the same old crap, go vote for Hillary then!
JB
Easy, jb
Things are not always as they appear. Ron has stuck his neck out for this country for 30 years, give him some lattitude. Now for some of the campaign staff, and tv ads, pathetic! Ron can only do so many things himself. He is an incredible man.
It would appear that Paul
It would appear that Paul does not want to do it himself because he fears the MSM would twist it into something it's not. It would appear that he just does not want to be considered a conspiracy theorist, and the MSM would definately do this to him. If he initiated a recount for the entire campaign he would appear to be a sore loser. In his speeches and interviews he tries to avoid "The Country is Against Me Theory".
Come on
They don't have time or resources to focus on this with HUGE primaries coming up VERY FAST. This is OUR job in the grass roots. Organize around key issues and GO TO WORK!
Don't get discouraged, the campaign has things they must work hard on at the moment. Means are not unlimited, while wants are...
The re-count issue will be what it will be...
I agree, Ron Paul made the right decision not to do a recount but supporters took the reigns.
We don't want Paul to appear as a sore looser!
I voted for the recount with my dollars - heck, it's not worth much anyway!
Dont rely on the official campaign!
They have more important tasks at hand, besides, one thing I love about this revolution is that by itself it proves that Dr. Paul's ideas work.
Think about it, relying on the campaign would be similar to relying on the Federal Government, the reason this movement is growing and doing so well is that we, as individuals are FREE to do what we think is best on a local level. Remember, by supporting Ron you are supporting individual liberty and choice, don't wait to hear something from the campaign!
Donate to one of the many causes, put up signs, turn your "dissapointment" into motivation, YOU CAN DOOOOO IT!
OK, time for a shock treatment! Are you ready, brace yourselves!
Ron Paul and The Campaign are one and the same! The Campaign are people selected and supervised by Ron Paul to get Ron Paul elected. So, please, open you eyes and address your complaints directly to Ron Paul.
So, when he becomes president and he's not doing things the way we expected, what are you going to say then? Oh, it's Congress, oh it's a White House issue, it's the VP, the Pentagon? What?
JB.
Here Here
Casey-
Right on the Ball.
This lawsuit may be our only Hope
They want to abolish all electronic voting and go strictly paper. I agree 100%. The thing is it is too late for this election and we will have to pay for a recount after every primary probably. This is ridiculous that WE have to pay for it when they are committing the fraud.
http://www.ncel.w4sp.com/
ASK FOR A PAPER BALLOT.
It's not too late for this election -
Suggest to everyone you talk to about the election that they vote on paper. I have always voted on paper, even when I was the only one to do so. My daughter waited in her polling place for 30 minutes in the last presidential election for someone to find & provide a paper ballot for her. They are required to if the voter requests it.
Not in my state
I was lied to. At first I was told yes I could have a paper ballot. Then when I called to confirm I was told if there is a write-in option on the electronic ballot then I can not request a paper ballot. I was told by our state election commission to get involved with the process if I didn't trust them to count my vote. They are all corrupt!
In all states?
This is a good idea to use where it is valid. Where can we find proof of this requirement?
It is my opinion they DO care.
Please people use some sophistication.
Bev Harris will be there
Stop trashing the HQ, they're trying to win the next states! HQ is doing a great job, who else can get their candidate 4th place with ZERO, and I mean ZERO media coverage. The blackout is not HQ's fault. This comment is ridiculous