EXCLUSIVE: Kucinich Letter Cites Miscounts in NH, Requests State Carry Out 'Complete and Accurate Re

[kster]

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 1/23/2008

Democratic Presidential Candidate Details 'Significant Percentage Variances,' from 4 to 10%, Discovered So Far During Hand Counts as Paid for by His Campaign
SoS Downplays Mistallies After One County Counted: No Changes 'As Far as Where the Candidates Finished'...

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is requesting that New Hampshire's Secretary of State, William Gardner, "order a complete and accurate recount of all ballots in the New Hamsphire Democratic Presidential Primary election," according to a letter sent this morning, as obtained by The BRAD BLOG.

The letter (posted in full at end of this article) expresses concerns about "significant percentage variances in four voting districts in Hillsborough County" before detailing a number of the discrepancies revealed by the post-election hand count in Concord, as paid for by the Democratic Presidential candidate's campaign.

The count was suspended this morning, when "funds ran out", according to the NH SoS website, making way for a Republican hand count challenge by candidate Albert Howard to begin tomorrow, as The BRAD BLOG reported earlier today.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5598

[Bonobo]

1. I just don't understand how "funds" can be an issue when we spent 1 trillion for democracy in Iraq!

End of fucking message!

[mod mom]

24. The BIG "funds" went to bush cronies like Wally O'Dell so now there is a lack of them

when needed to verify the vote.

:hi:

[Tarc]

2. Just can't let it go, eh?

[Wilms]

3. Election reform activists are interested in this because of the voting system.

It's not because of (fill in name of candidate liked or disliked).

It's not about you.

[samdogmom]

4. Good grief!

What goes around, comes around! Your smugness is not a good thing. The day will come that you regret your stance!

[Tarc]

6. /yawn

Denny blew 50-60,000 or so on a recount that did not change any candidate's positioning in any of the wards counted. And now he wants to keep going?

Beam him up, Scotty.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. It really pisses you off doesn't it? It's worth it just for that.

[eridani]

10. 5 or 10% may not make any difference in this election, so fuck accuracy, correct?

Thanks to people like you, our victory in 2000 turned into a loss.

[Tarc]

17. Bullshit

A legitimate recount was underway in 2000, but was squashed by the Supreme Court.

There is no legitimacy in this one. The initial recount did not budge the Anointed One one inch closer to winning New Hampshire. Case closed.

[John Q. Citizen]

20. Ahhh. I get it. It's all about Hillary instead of about accuracy for you. As long as your

candidate wins, screw an accurate count, screw following state law, screw everything else.

See, that's where we differ, Tarc. I don't judge legitamacy based on whether my candidate win or not. I base it on an accurate count. That's the only way to confir legitamcy on the winner.

[eridani]

22. That does not matter in the slightest

Allow this shit in races that aren't close, and it becomes acceptable for races that are.

[napi21]

5. The numbers I saw were very low discrepancies. If I rmember right,

there was 74 ote diff. and a little less than that in two others. I suspect the recounts that were done were from small disricts that could be done easly, and I haven't heard why ther were differences. If we are talking about lage districts and they CAN be recounted, I would love the see the variances.

I'm still not quite understandig why recounts have to be separte,y paid for? If there isa discrepancy in an election, isn't it u to the district, county, state, to prove their voting wa authentic? Wouldn't that be a strong reason to force districts to pay close attention to accuracy?

[samdogmom]

8. Ummmm. Spell-check, anyone?

When you post something so badly worded and obviously not spell-checked, SORRY, but you scream "FREEPER".

So, what was your point again? I got lost digging through the bad English and misspellings!

[troubleinwinter]

11. The person you are adressing has been a member of DU for over four years

and has over 27,000 posts. Accusing someone of being a freeper is not only against the rules, but in this case screams that you are a "RUDE BOOR".

[samdogmom]

14. Sorry. I'm not trying to be rude. Just correct.

"adressing" I rest my case.

[SoxFan]

7. Pay for your own damn recount

I don't want my tax dollars being spent on a tinfoil hat fishing expedition.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. I can see why you are pissed off. NH can't even total the vote correctly, after

spending all that money on crappy machines.

You guys are like the Florida of the North.

[SoxFan]

15. Facts are stubborn things

The only errors of note were due to elderly and sleep deprived ballot clerks writing down vice presidential write-in votes in the presidential column. The machine count and the hand recount were actually very, very close, with no measurable difference from the paper ballot towns.

But if you guys are convinced that Big Bad Diebold has bought off the Secretary of State and 300 town and ward moderators, by all means enjoy the festivities.

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Naw, I just think NH can't count ballots any better than Florida can. I don't think it's

Diebold buying off your SOS, it's probably something in the water..

I can see why you would be too embarrased to double check.

It would make you look stupid.

[Tarc]

18. The only one looking stupid here is you, little boy

Every election will have counting errors, but to compare this to the scale of fraud seen in Florida 2000 is beyond the pale.

Zip it and stop embarrassing yourself, please.

[John Q. Citizen]

19. I didn't suggest fraud. I suggest auditing to ensure a quality count. Everywhere should do

it. Especially when the current limited NH recount finds errors totaling from 4% tot 10%. The person I responded to was whining about tax dollars.

Yet without a full recount, and an audit (counting ruined and unvoted ballots) you have absolutly no idea how accurate or inaccurate the repotered totals are.

It appears state law was violated since for some reason the state has no idea what happened to the memory cards.

If you prefer to stick your head in the sand and your fingers in your ears, that's your problem. That's what Florida opted for as well. Remember?

[riqster]

21. Fact: Accurate is not a flexible concept

"Pretty close" is not accurate.

[eridani]

13. It is known to people who give a shit about election integrity--

--as AUDITING, capeesh? If the losing team had one more touchdown that still wasn't enough to win, then fuck the instant replay, correct? If breaches of integrity don't matter to the final results in one election, they goddam will in some other election.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. states without audits should go last in the primaries

that way people like Dennis Kucinich don't have to sacrifice to pay for
the errors of clerks.

Does it have to take a recount to find that a clerk wrote in the results wrong on the
totals sheet?

Canvassing should have corrected that.

Actually, a second pair of eyes should have corrected it before results were announced.

New Hampshire is too different demographically from the rest of the country, and too tiny - to figure so prominently in the primary process.