By Brad Friedman from Sacramento…
Election Integrity experts from around the country have been converging on the Granite State over the last several days, in preparation for “historic” state-wide hand counts of New Hampshire’s Primary Election ballots, The BRAD BLOG has learned. Counts of votes on both the Democratic and Republican sides will begin in earnest this Wednesday, as long as the two contesting candidates deliver certified checks by 3pm on Tuesday, in amounts determined on Monday by Secretary of State William M. Gardner.
The battle for transparency and accountability on the ground, where some 80% of the state’s ballots were tallied only by error-prone, hackable Diebold optical-scan voting machines, without human audit or spot-checking of any kind, in last week’s first-in-the-nation Primary, is already growing heated on both sides of the aisle, and even inside the statehouse as of Monday.
While representatives from each of the contestants have reportedly been working together on several aspects of the two separate counts — each claiming to have requested the hand-counts in order to help answer questions about anomalous reported results — what has become immediately clear, during our interviews with several members involved in the challenges as well as Election Integrity advocates now in New Hampshire and elsewhere, is that these election challenges likely may not mirror the partial recount in 2004, held at the request of then-Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
The BRAD BLOG has obtained the two-page request for a detailed list of ballot and voting machine-related public documents and records submitted on Monday to Gardner by the previously obscure Republican candidate Albert Howard. Howard’s request makes clear that the battle for integrity and transparency in post-election challenges may have finally caught up with the technical sea-changes in voting equipment that have overtaken the American election system over the last several years.
Due to extraordinary complexities in the ever more complicated computer systems, scanners, tabulators, record sets, databases, and proprietary programming that have now been employed by election administrators across the country, the once-simple task of examining and recounting paper ballots — where they still exist, as they do in New Hampshire — has grown exponentially more technical and confusing.
Early word on the ground in New Hampshire’s capital city of Concord, along with concerns from candidates, surrogates, and election experts alike, suggests that these “recounts” could be like no other in the history of the country…
Howard, himself, has apparently been a quick learner, according to a number of Election Integrity experts with whom we spoke on Monday. They’ve been advising him on matters of technical and chain-of-custody concerns, as his requests for transparent documentation have already led to confrontations with the Secretary of State on Monday, as Howard told The BRAD BLOG later in the evening.
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“I had the election integrity ‘Dream Team’ in there with me,” he told us, delighted about the progress they had been making on Monday. “We’ve already been learning some incredible things, today. And we’ve got it all captured on video tape.”
“Wait until you see it,” he promised. “I’m telling you, it’s better than Hacking Democracy,” he said, referring to the 2006 Emmy-nominated HBO documentary film in which one of the very same Diebold machines used to tally 80% of the ballots in New Hampshire is seen flipping the results of a mock-election in Leon County, Florida, after its sensitive memory-card had been hacked. (Video of that seminal hack here.)
Two of the citizen election watchdogs present at that Leon County hack, filmed back in late 2005, were also present along with other citizen advocates at the statehouse in Concord on Monday.
On the Democratic side, surrogates for hand-count requester Congressman Dennis Kucinich were said to be conferring with Election Integrity advocates and computer experts across the country as well, as they prepared to focus on the technological aspect of the recount.
As well, concerns were expressed about the private company, LHS Associates, which oversees programming, sales, and service for all the Diebold voting machines used in New Hampshire, as well as most of the other states in New England. Concerns included the recently revealed criminal background of a senior LHS executive, Michael Hajjar, and other less-than-appropriate behavior by fellow officials at the company. The BRAD BLOG has reported on questions about LHS over the past year. We’ve previously detailed a number of those concerns, along with the criminal record of Hajjar, who pled guilty to narcotics trafficking in 1990. Our most recent reporting on LHS, and what seems to be inappropriate access to voting machines, and confusion concerning protocol for access to voting equipment before, during, and after elections in New Hampshire, can be found here and here.
The costs for the hand counts must be paid, in full and up front, according to Gardner’s interpretation of the state recount statute, according to letters given to the candidates today. (The full letter to Howard is at the end of this article.) Both a Kucinich representative and Howard himself questioned the Secretary of State’s demand for full payment up front during conversations we had with them Monday evening. Kucinich must deliver a check for $69,600 by Tuesday afternoon. Howard is being charged a total $57,600. Each, at a cost of 24 cents per ballot.
“It’s ludicrous,” charged senior Kucinich campaign representative, David Bright. “New Hampshire has the privilege of being the first in the nation. This election brings in $3 billion dollars to the economy, so you’d think a measly 70k would be part of the cost of doing business,” he told The BRAD BLOG in a phone interview on Monday night.
Both Bright and Kucinich’s New Hampshire Attorney Manny Krasner told us that their candidate would pay the fees up front, as required, though they contested Gardner’s reading of the law which, they pointed out, only requires a written guarantee of payment.
“We’ve already signed documents to agree we’re doing this,” Bright said. “I think they ought to be doing this themselves anyway, on behalf of the voters and integrity.”
“If Obama had done it, it would have been $2,000,” Bright explained, referring to the state law which allows a candidate in a close election to pay just $2,000 total for a hand count. “So it’s clearly an obstacle they’re throwing in our way. I don’t think it’s good government,” he added.
Both camps seem confident they will be able to raise the fee demanded by Gardner, though delivery of funds on time to Howard in New Hampshire is still a concern. Supporters of Republican candidate Ron Paul have been helping to raise funds, as questions about the vote totals of the Libertarian-leaning Conservative Congressman from Texas arose after zero votes were recorded for him in the hand-counted wards of Summit. Paul was later given 31 votes, and the issue was chalked up to an error by a local election official.
Donations to the Howard’s count can be made here. Donations to Kucinich’s count can be made by calling (877) 413 3664 (updated info).
Last Friday, in a press release from Kucinich, who received just over 1% of the Democratic Primary votes, according to the reported results last week, the Ohio Congressman said that he was calling for the count in the wake of questions about the disparities between results from hand-counted precincts and Diebold precincts. In hand-counted precincts Obama was reported as the winner, while in Diebold precincts Clinton came out on top. Though logical explanations exist for the nearly identical, if reversed, percentages, concerns about Diebold voting systems, found vulnerable to manipulation in independent study after independent study, have driven fears that the tallies were somehow tampered with.
“This recount isn’t about who won 39% of 36% or even 1%. It’s about establishing whether 100% of the voters had 100% of their votes counted exactly the way they cast them,” Kucinich said last week, after questions arose about the apparent come-from-behind win by Senator Hillary Clinton which had stunned pundits and pre-election pollsters who had predicted a substantial win by Senator Barrack Obama.
The internal polling of both Senators also, reportedly, predicted an Obama win, as did mid-day Exit Polling numbers, according to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, and other sources who have independently confirmed that Obama was leading throughout the day, according to the unadjusted Exit Polling results, taken as voters were leaving the voting booth.
Howard, a little-known African-American Republican candidate from Michigan, had received just 44 votes according to the officially reported results, but became alarmed after he says television reports had shown him having more than one hundred votes as results were still coming in last Tuesday.
Reportedly, Howard saw his totals on C-SPAN climb to 50 votes, with just 12 percent of precincts reporting on Election Night. Later, he was pleased to note his vote had grown as high as 187.
In Howard’s official statement on Sunday, offering reasons for his challenge of the final tallies, he echoed the concerns of Kucinich, the Democratic candidate:
According to BRAD BLOG interviews with a number of the citizen Election Integrity advocates and experts from around the country who had come to New Hampshire’s capital, Howard was receiving a crash course on the many technical sensitivities of Diebold voting machines, concerns about LHS Associates’ access, the perils of secret software used in New Hampshire’s voting systems, and the all-important chain-of-custody issues for ballots, polling records, and, yes, Diebold voting machine memory cards.
Melisa Urda, of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP) was with Howard throughout the day, as video cameras rolled on nearly every moment of the early proceedings, discussions, and even confrontations with SoS Gardner, and his Deputy SoS David M. Scanlan.
“It’s a violation of federal statute that requires original electronic and other election media be retained for 22 months after a federal election,” Urda explained, as she described questions that have already arisen during talks with officials concerning the whereabouts and chain-of-custody records for sensitive voting machine memory cards, ballots — both voted and unvoted — and other election records such as end-of-election poll tapes printed out by the machines and signed by poll workers after the close of voting at each precinct.
“The poll tapes were in a box on a floor, many of them not signed,” said Paddy Shaffer of Ohio’s Election Justice Campaign, who had flown in on Monday to help with preparations for the statewide hand counts.
“Initially [Gardner] said ‘here are all the election records,'” Shaffer said, as he pointed to the box. She, and the others on hand, expressed worry about the condition and storage of the records, and what seemed to be a great deal of as-yet-unaccounted-for documentation.
Howard’s letter to Gardner, in preparation for the count, was sent after consultation with several of the Election Integrity experts, including BlackBoxVoting.org (BBV)’s Bev Harris and the others. Harris said she has given identical recommendations to both campaigns, as her non-profit, election watchdog organization is mandated to be both non-partisan, and non-political. BBV had helped organize the landmark Diebold AccuVote Optical-Scan test, seen in Hacking Democracy. Both she, and Florida Fair Elections Coalition’s Susan Pynchon, who was also on hand in Concord, are key participants during the climactic hack in that film.
Howard’s letter, detailing the requirements for his hand count, begins…
I request a proper ballot reconciliation for my recount of the 2008 New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election, and that my recount will include hand counting of Election Day and absentee ballots, including all blank ballots, spoiled ballots, and voted ballots, with each count recorded on the recount form.
For each town and/or ward counted, I request that my recount include the result from each original poll tape, such tape (signed by the election judges) to be examined and recorded by the ballot recount team.
When preparing the results for the Jan. 8 primary election, the office of the NH Secretary of State prepared a tally using an Excel program or similar program. I request a copy of this electronic tally file and a copy of the original data printout from the tally program as used for the Jan. 8 election.
The letter then details public records requests, as per New Hampshire state law, for documents needed to reconcile the accurate hand counting of ballots, as slated to begin in proper on Wednesday. (See the complete letter below.)
The women told us, however, that Gardner, “a lifelong Democrat who has been elected 16 times by a state Legislature that until last year had been dominated by the GOP,” according to the New Hampshire Union-Leader, seemed less than eager to meet the candidate’s request, despite the nearly $60,000 being charged to Howard, a limousine driver and father of eight from Ann Arbor.
Gardner reportedly attempted to refer Howard’s requests for ballot reconciliation numbers, poll book records, reported machine errors, etc., as detailed in his letter, to the Attorney General’s office, suggesting the candidate was not entitled to an investigation, only to a recount.
The Secretary was said to have grown visibly, and increasingly, upset at various points through the day.
“The candidate has been willing to educate himself to make important decisions. He’s spending a lot of money,” Shaffer says she told Gardner, after the Secretary balked at many of the requests. He was unable to provide the whereabouts of many election records, Shaffer and the others confirmed. “We kept asking him questions, and he just didn’t want to go there.”
In addition to the repeated concerns about the whereabouts of the crucial memory cards — more details about which, they said, they would likely be releasing soon — Harris explained that in order to adequately reconcile any hand-count of the as-yet-uncounted-by-anyone 80% of New Hampshire’s ballots, a “full accounting” of all ballots ordered, printed, delivered, voted, and left blank, as well as ruined ballots, such as ones where the voter had messed up, and asked for another, needed to be provided, and should be readily available from each polling location.
Florida’s Pynchon — seen weeping at the end of Hacking Democracy when proof of the hacked system finally became clear, as the results of a mock-election on the same equipment used in New Hampshire printed out, with reversed results, on the poll tape — was troubled that so little had been done since that notable moment two years ago, which revealed that Diebold had been secretly using computer code on the memory cards, which had been expressly banned by federal voting system guidelines.
“Having been at the Hursti Hack,” — (so named after Finnish computer security expert Harri Hursti, who devised the successful scheme to flip the votes, and is also seen in the film) — “and having witnessed first hand the vulnerability of the Diebold memory cards and machines, it’s very disturbing to me that these systems are still in use and that in New Hampshire, there have been, apparently, no precautions taken to even try to mitigate those vulnerabilities.”
“It’s great to have paper ballots, but paper ballots are just a part of the process,” Pynchon emphasized. “The entire process needs to be completely open, completely transparent to the public. When you have a weak link in the process, that’s a weak link in the whole election.”
“When the Secretary of State won’t tell you,” about certain key elements of the election, “it’s really a red flag,” she said.
Nonetheless, BBV’s Harris remained optimistic. “This is truly historic. You have two presidential candidates, one from each party, and they’re going for a full state wide recount, in a state that has good visibility.”
“We need 15 to 20 video cameras and tapers, maybe more” to document everything, she said, as the counts are set to proceed this week. “This really is one of the most fascinating primaries in history. Hand counts [of 20% of the state’s ballots] and machine-counts [in the rest.] And full hand recounts. It’s really historic.”
As we wrapped up our conversation with Kucinich representative David Bright, he was, perhaps, inadvertently prescient about where things may end up going, not only in New Hampshire’s upcoming ballots counts, but in the rest of this Election Year, now just 14 days old as of this writing.
“Our new motto,” said Bright, riffing on the old Warren Zevon rock and roll classic: “Send lawyers, peace, and money.”
Recount record request sent from Republican Presidential Candidate Albert Howard to NH Sec. of State William Gardner on 1/14/08…
NH Sec. of State William Gardner’s notice of recount costs to Republican Presidential candidate Albert Howard, 1/14/08…
Supposing that the lawyers, money and peace fail in the effort to bring more transparent elections, how about sending in the people?
The idea would be to organise a shadow election in each voting district by grassroots non-partisan affiliates at the same time as the official elections are held. The electorate would simply be asked to vote on paper for the candidate that they had chosen for the official election. This way the accuracy of the results could be verified by independent observers.
Perhaps it’s too late, but it may be worth the effort.
I reiterate that the chain of custody of existing evidence (a.k.a. paper ballots) is the ultimate consideration at this time.
In this I concur with no less than Bev Harris.
In cases where factual questions are said to be considered by the highest logic, most advanced evidentiary processes, and greatest exclusion of bias (the American trial court) chain of custody of evidence is a fundamental requirement.
Without a valid chain of custody there simply is no valid evidence, which in this case would mean there are no paper ballots:
(Brad Sedd).
Therefore unless the chain of custody is bona fide the paper ballots are no better than DRE, and legally do not exist.
Democracy or democrazy turns on the bona fide evidence or the lack thereof.
I can print out for you any number of NH paper ballots at any time of day or nite … so long as I have a good grade computer and printer.
Think counterfeit vs bona fide and what makes each what it is or isn’t.
“these “recounts” could be like no other, in the history of the country…”
So, NH is an “opportunity” to shed light on “counting the votes” early in the primary, great job! Maybe even better because it’s a small state (?)… like a “test”…later for other states!
They’re charging 24 cents for each ballot?! That’s almost a dollar for every 4 ballots. What a crock. As was said, this election generates billions of dollars for NH. Oh well, way to stand up Obama and Edwards.
Each candidate is being charged the full price of the recount?
If you have two candidates calling for the same thing, they’re not going to do it twice, are they?
This will be a FULL recount, right? Not just counting the votes for Howard and Kucinich, but EVERY vote cast for EVERY candidate?
It looks to me like a partia-full recount.
It also looks like they have been burying the evidence for so long that they don’t even know how to preform an honest one…we’ll see
Sounds like a government of the ‘dollar’, by the ‘dollar’, for the ‘dollar’
General Electric owns NBC, General Electric is one of the biggest war profiteers, NBC bans Kucinich from their debate, Kucinich is the biggest anti-war candidate…
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mo..._01142008.html
Too Funny, the NH law for “PROVISIONS FOR PURITY OF ELECTIONS” is Statute chapter 666!
I was listening to NPR and a straw poll .. people talking about how Obama and Edwards were “stand up guys”.. yet, neither is here helping prove the efficacy of our elections, and they could be saving some true patriots a LOT of money.. Yet, for the “fear of the stigma of speaking up, the fear of the political damage”, these “stand up guys” are content to hope like hell they can “pull it off”..
So much for “bright” or “stand up”.
I can’t believe the people of NH are standing for this. I can’t believe we don’t have some people like Soros aren’t out there paying this bill.. I can’t believe the sheeple are that far gone.. It’s a sad day for America.
I’m no lawyer & I might be missing something, but if you read the statute at http://www.sos.nh.gov/rsa660.htm section 660:7 regarding “State or Presidential Primary Recounts”.
I don’t see it written anywhere about the 24 cent cost per ballot recounted. Can anyone enlighten me?
Maybe our defenders of democracy can draw a lesson from the meltdown in credit markets in recent months. Market confidence in highly complex derivative securities based on mortgage loans has collapsed, along with confidence in the capability and even integrity of rating agencies sanctioned to evaluate those securities.
In the early 1930s, William O. Douglas once stated “Confidence is the bulwark of capitalism, as it is of democracy.” These are words worth carrying around.
Whoops, just found it myself!
660:2 IV. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be greater than 3 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the candidate shall pay the fees as provided in RSA 660:2, III and shall agree in writing with the secretary of state to pay any additional costs of the recount.
Please disregard previous post.
Seems geared to discourage losers by wide margin from rocking the apple cart.
Is it possible to do a new, after-the-fact exit poll in which voters in NH are asked how they voted in the primary? Presumably, polling experts could determine what kind of sample would be needed to have a tiny margin of error.
New Hampshire should have put all materials,voting machines,documents,and anything else related to the primaries into secure lockdown once it had become apparent that a recount would be requested.
They will have had 9 days to try and make the evidence fit the reported outcome.
My feeling is that there is going to be a lot of evidence that will be inaccessible because it is “proprietary” or just plain “lost”.
Great job of reporting Brad Blog.
There will be no recount.
Various thoughts…
This is a full recount of all Dem primary ballots (paid by Kucinich), and all Rep primary ballots (paid by the other guy).
Dredd, much of this is not governed by the standard of the court of law, but the court of public opinion. If the recount doesn’t change the results, it proves little (to us). If the results DO change, it will make e-counting “look” REAL bad, even if it doesn’t “prove” it is. It’s unlikely the MSM will blame it on someone switching the ballots “after” the first count.
Bearing in mind that simple technical screwups could be to blame (and may be more likely), we can at least hope to catch those, or an insufficiently sophisticated hacking attempt. It’s worth the money, if we do.
Question: Do we have confirmation that all ballots will be completely hand-counted?
Mac
And until we do away with private companies with complete access to our votes…and ‘propritary’ codes….we are very far from free and transparent elections.
Brad, I cannot thank you enough for the education that you have been fighting to provide for all of us.
I hope we are capapble of learning…
When I went to the donation site for Albert Howard it was insecure. That’s a problem if we are to raise money for the Republican recount by tomorrow
For me the quote from Kucinich’s rep. says it all…
I get it now. WTF was I thinking, believing elections were to choose our public representative. In Americaâ„¢®©, elections are just another for profit business.
Thanks to Brad for beings so diligent on this most fundamental of topics, unlike other so called Progressive or Liberal Blogs.
Thank you Brad!! What would we do without your excellent reports!!
Brad, I’m serious here…we need you in Congress!
http://www.peacecandidates.com
We need to look at the “money” trail! Who exactly ushered these machines in so “conveniently” late last year. Someone must know. NH people generally don’t put up w/ this shit once we find the culprit(s). My guess is the Greggs or Sununus of this state. We are a lone voice, but keep screaming,…they’ll hear eventually!
One wonders if the loss of state revenue, due to housing market price decline and therefore pro rata real estate tax revenue decline, inspires the state to charge crazy amounts for a …
No, it is not a re-count if they will be counting 80% of them for the first time for real … instead of on the play-pretend model 666 of
Dieboldnow with the alias “Premier”.How low can election warlords go? When they can’t prove a damn thing they should not be allowed to charge for doing what they must by law do right anyway!
UPDATE ON DONATING TO ‘RECOUNT’ OF DEMOCRATIC BALLOTS:
The easiest way to donate specifically to the recount efforts is by phone at this number:
(877) 413 3664. We’re hearing reports that Act Blue takes a cut of the donations and that the Kucinich campaign site is having trouble with the system that allows people to specify that their donations are for the NH ‘recount.’
40 MINUTES UNTIL DEADLINE!
FUBAR!
Here is something to consider:
Why do you think that a potentially decisive majority of states are allowed to hold their primaries on Super Duper Tuesday?
It could be because certain things like election fraud can be swept under the rug since the media and everyone else’s attention is scattered and most likely the winners will be crowned and the nominees become irrefutable fact.
This is designed to make it next to impossible to determine who the real winners are plus the clock starts ticking toward the conventions and November
and all the dissenters are dismissed as being “conspiracy theorists”
The recount should be free FRAUD was already proven in the voidind of ron paul vote totals
Excellent reporting Brad.
Thank you,
GBD
I have read your blog with great interest. I am from Ohio and we are in a pre election battle over use of Diebold equipment. We are also watching the events unfold in New Hampshire.
It is not up to politicans to protect our right to vote. That is our job and we need to take it very seriously. Especially when it appears that politicans and business are working to alter the end results.
I have recommended your blog to several of my friends to read. It is excellent! Keep on bringing the news about the election process and those Premiere/Diebold machines.
Help, how did my reddit end up negative and how do I change it?
“When I went to the donation site for Albert Howard it was insecure. ”
In the lower corner, “this site powered by DIEBOLD” (just kidding)…
UPDATE:
Kucinich has provided the necessary funds by the 3 p.m. EST deadline today to begin the hand-recount of all democratic ballots tomorrow. There had been some question as to whether the fundraising effort had come up short at the last minute. Fortunately, Nancy Swett of the NH SOS office confirmed at 3:03 EST today that the funds had been received. She was not able to confirm or deny if the funds to conduct the hand-recount on the Republican side had come in yet.
So, the Democratic Party recount will begin tomorrow as scheduled!!!
They deleted their contact info, apparently they don’t want feedback from the public regarding the NH Primary. Fortunately, Google spies on all:
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=...d=1&gl=us
President John Silvestro Ext. 114 Johns@lhsassociates.com
Vice President Gerry Bergeron Ext. 107 Gerryb@lhsassociates.com
Administrative Assistant Peaches Wilcox Ext. 102 Peach@lhsassociates.com
Director of Sales & Marketing Ken Hajjar Ext. 108 Kenh@lhsassociates.com
General Manager Jeff Silvestro Ext. 115 Jeffs@lhsassociates.com
Election Services Manager Sue Reynolds Ext. 104 Suer@lhsassociates.com
Municipal Division Manager Tom Burge Ext. 110 Tomb@lhsassociates.com
IT & Warehouse Manager John Levicki Ext. 109 Johnl@lhsassociates.com
Election Services Rep. Kristen Colon Ext. 116 Krisc@lhsassociates.com
Election Services Rep. Brenda Merritt Ext. 111 BCM@lhsassociates.com
Election Services Rep.Patricia Buttersworth Ext. 119 Patb@lhsassociates.com
Quality Control Rep. Nancy Kennedy Ext. 103 Nancyk@lhsassociates.com
Field Technician Mike Carlson Ext. 118 Mikec@lhsassociates.com
Field Technician Roderick Amidon Ext. 120 Rodericka@lhsassociates.com
Both parties should say: for 2012, no delegates may be elected from any jurisdiction where votes are counted without voter-marked paper ballots. And every primary election must include mandatory hand-counts of a random sample of precincts in each jurisdiction. No candidate may be charged more than $0.02 per ballot for recounts. This charge must be waived in the event that the requesting candidate’s vote total is within five percent of that of the winning candidate.
Posting this on all applicable threads…
PLEASE NOTE:
This is not about Candidate A winning or Candidate B losing. This is solely about the hackable, unsecure voting machines (optical scan in NH) that have been investigated and proven to be crap and yet are still deployed to count the majority of elections in this country.
Whenever and wherever there is a discrepancy with electronic voting machines involved — no matter how big or small the race, no matter if it’s Repub or Dem — Voting Integrity advocates look into it. It’s what they do.
Please do not assume or assign motives, intentions or conclusions to anyone here that are not EXPLICITLY stated. Brad makes crystal clear that he doesn’t care who won or lost, just that the results are ACCURATE. Period.
The site owner is not responsible for the opinions of commenters in this open forum. No endorsement of commenters’ opinions is either intended or implied.
In addition, please note that The Brad Blog does not allege that fraud (or “rigging”) has actually occurred — only that the results of any contest that incorporates electronic voting systems should be subject to exacting scrutiny and independent verification prior to certification.
Thank you.
Brad,
If someone can arrange a flight from TAMPA Florida, my partner Leonard and I would sleep outdoors and drink frozen milk directly from the utter of a placid COW to help BEV film this recount.
Already wrote to BEV, but I’m sure she’s on over-drive. Can you let her know, just in case?…
Thanks!
#37 Jeannie Dean
You truly have the spirit of 1776.
It looks like Paypal (and this is according to a Ron Paul forum I’m checking out so who knows how accurate it is) decided to freeze the funds the Republicans had raised and they weren’t able to make the 3 pm deadline. I really hope this is inaccurate or at the very least NH backs down and does not hold firm to this bullshit 3 pm deadline.
Secondly, I like the figure that New Hampshire came up with- they knew 25 cents for each ballot would look outrageous (4 for a $1) so they knock it down to 24 cents a piece (which is still ridiculous). I’m sure they were asking each other, “What’s the most we can charge for each ballot without the majority of people getting wise to the fact that what we really want is to make sure a full recount never happens.” It’s looking like NH will do everything in their power to avoid accountability and cares little about having a honest election- all they care about are the billions of dollars that pour into the state from being one of the first to vote.
Counting ballots by hand?
That sounds quaint…like the Geneva Conventions.
I can’t seem to find ANY real-time MICHIGAN PRIMARY DATA/INFO. Can anyone direct me?…
Or is it that are we no longer allowed to even watch the UN-SUBSTATIATED SPIN as it comes in, anymore?…
The only thing I can find is the same, lame AP wire that went out at 1:00–says Hillary has a 7% lead over Obama/ McCain barely leads Mitt and Huckabee/ Ron Paul has 2%…???!!! Okay….
ALSO: Anyone know if KUCINICH is IN? What happened with the appeal? I can’t find a thing about it, and it starts in 30 minutes…
READER (#39) Yes, very saddened by the news (confirmed): ALBERT HOWARD REPUBLICAN RECOUNT was BLOCKED BY (RANDOM)? DEADLINE REQUIREMENT AFTER (STRANGE COINCIDENCE and/or SHITTY TECHNOLOGY?) PAYPAL CRASHED last night.
Meanwhile, I’m watching C-Span/ Waxman getting all worked up about STEROID USE…while the left side of the screen reads: “U.S. HOUSE VOTING MACHINES ARE NOT WORKING; MEMBERS ARE SIGNING IN MANUALLY…”
And the Democrats don’t count in Michigan.
Where EDWARDS was likely to have a nice turnout.
What a truly. Freaky. Day.
Pardon me if someone has already posted this here, but I just discovered that The New Yorker has discovered the EI issue. And forgive me if I’m wrong about this. I just don’t recall reading anything to date in The New Yorker about EI.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2...ta_talk_toobin
It’s a good article, about the national voter ID scam.
nh sos web site STILL doesnt have “how many peops voted” posted on their web site or the voters sig lists
is there anyway to get the “tapes” from the individual precincts published on the web?
Dems have made a big mistake in Michigan. They should not have abandoned the state and let the reps get a foothold.
{Ed Note: Can’t even run out to the store without the bastards sneaking in on me. Pfeh. Thanks, zap. –99}
Discussion going on right now on http://www.toginet.com. Will continue until 6 p.m. Pacific time.
… if spammed…
“spam alert”
Well its official, nevada supreme court agrees No Kucinich in the debate tonight, and they still insist on calling this a democracy. Just remember folks, when democracy was born and ever threatened hundreds of thousands of people have given their lives for it. Probably every single one of us is related to at least one of these. I just have to wonder what they would say to us right now.
People….I posted on the subject of recount costs on a different thread but it never made it due to a ‘glitch in the computer'(as I said to Brad, ‘it’s a good thing we weren’t voting’); there needs to be a nationwide uprising regarding these costs; as an example, San Diego County wanted several HUNDRED thousand dollars for a recount in the election to replace the corrupt Duke Cunningham. JUST as important as accurate voting counts are these exorbitant costs for recounts; just as the system is ‘gamed’ to prevent third parties, it is ‘gamed’ to prevent citizen’s from challenging the results of elections.
RISE UP !!
People needed for the dem recount in NH tomorrow:
http://www.opednews.com/article..._needed_fo.htm
“C-Span/ Waxman getting all worked up about STEROID USE.”
The fact Congress is wasting time on baseball with all the truly important shit we’ve got going down in this country. Bread and circuses people, bread and circuses….Anyone got a Britney update for me?
I’M REVOLTING!
Warren needed for inspiration today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOX5hEQV_VM
This is so exciting in that it offers hope that the people can really rise up, yet it is terrifying in that the powers that be are certainly not sitting back, twiddling their thumbs just waiting for the recount if they really have something to hide.
I thought the steroid issue was handled, except for the steroid use by Blackwater’s “global stabilization professionals.”
I wonder what would happen if we gave Waxman some steroids?
Does Howard have a good lawyer?
I’ve just followed the links given by folks in the posts above and these seem to be the relevant clauses for payment of recounts:
IV. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be greater than 3 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the candidate shall pay the fees as provided in RSA 660:2, III and shall agree in writing with the secretary of state to pay any additional costs of the recount.
660:7 Application. Any person for whom a vote was cast for any nomination of any party at a state or presidential primary may apply for a recount. The application shall be made in writing to the secretary of state and shall be submitted no later than the Friday after the primary for a recount of all ballots cast for such nomination. Each candidate requesting a recount shall pay the secretary of state fees as provided in RSA 660:2.
All I get out of this is the candidate has to pay the fees as provided in 660:2- that would be the $2,000.
Otherwise, all the candidate appears to have to do is to agree in writing to pay any additional costs of the recount.
Was the SOS blocking the recount? That’s what it looks like. All Kucinich and Howard needed to do was pay the FEE, which is separate, then agree in writing to pay any ADDITIONAL costs.
The fee is mandatory with the application. It does not look like any candidate has to pay for the recount up front.
Unless there are other provisions in law not found yet. Otherwise, the SOS is making additions to the law that are not there.
Badger: It would make a difference how up to date with case law, and for that matter administrative law, your source is… but it would also hinge on anything in 660:2 beside what you’ve cited…. Can’t fathom that a decent attorney has not come forth and said, “Hey, wait just a doggone minute now!” already…. But I’m old and obviously things aren’t being done the way they used to be.
Recount New Hampshire Act Blue page with moneys going to Kucinich for the recount.
http://www.actblue.com/page/recountnewhampshire
Agent 99, good idea! Let’s get the entire U.S. Congress on steroids. Man ’em all up. Bring out THE AGGRESSOR in every last one of ’em.
Can you imagine Harry Reid all beefed up? Sweatin’ in front of the videocameras with his glasses all steamed up? Sayin’: “That’s it! You done really pissed me off this time, Dick Cheney. I’m a’comin’ t’ gitcha!”
Oh. Off topic.
I could change the post title to “Send Lawyers, Peace, Money and Officials Hopped Up on Steroids”! 😛
It sort of IS the topic if you ask me. WHERE are the government officials with the balls to
DO
THEIR
JOBS???
Just Dennis, and they call him a pipsqueak. Sheesh.
http://www.sos.nh.gov/rsa660.htm
There’s more but these seems to be the relevant parts.I think the SOS needs to come up with evidence supporting his mandate of prepayment:
CHAPTER 660
POST-ELECTION PROCEDURE
State General Election Recounts
660:1 Application. Any candidate for whom a vote was cast for any office at a state general election may apply for a recount. The application shall be made in writing to the secretary of state and shall be submitted no later than the Friday following the election. Each candidate requesting a recount shall pay the secretary of state fees as provided in RSA 660:2.
660:2 Fees. I. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be less than one percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the following fees shall apply:
(a) Candidate for president, United States senator or governor, $500.
(b) Candidate for United States representative, $250.
(c) Candidate for executive councilor, $100.
(d) Candidate for state senator or county officer, $50.
(e) Candidate for state representative, $10.
II. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be between one percent and 2 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the following fees shall apply:
(a) Candidate for president, United States senator or governor, $1,000.
(b) Candidate for United States representative, $500.
(c) Candidate for executive councilor, $200.
(d) Candidate for state senator or county officer, $100.
(e) Candidate for state representative, $20.
III. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be between 2 percent and 3 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the following fees shall apply:
(a) Candidate for president, United States senator or governor, $2,000.
(b) Candidate for United States representative, $1,000.
(c) Candidate for executive councilor, $400.
(d) Candidate for state senator or county officer, $200.
(e) Candidate for state representative, $40.
IV. If the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be greater than 3 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the candidate shall pay the fees as provided in RSA 660:2, III and shall agree in writing with the secretary of state to pay any additional costs of the recount.
State or Presidential Primary Recounts
660:7 Application. Any person for whom a vote was cast for any nomination of any party at a state or presidential primary may apply for a recount. The application shall be made in writing to the secretary of state and shall be submitted no later than the Friday after the primary for a recount of all ballots cast for such nomination. Each candidate requesting a recount shall pay the secretary of state fees as provided in RSA 660:2.
‘the candidate shall pay the fees as provided in RSA 660:2, III and shall agree in writing with the secretary of state to pay any additional costs of the recount.’
I read it to mean you pay $2000 and then sign that you will pay the difference after the recount is done and a cost is determined. Only the $2000 must be paid in advance.
It usually takes around six days for PayPal payments to transfer to a bank. It is actually a fairly elaborate process, so I wouldn’t necessarily jump to saying that PayPal deliberately stalled the transfer process. In fact PayPay has cut into the profits of some major bank-affiliate merchant processing systems, so it kind of puts PayPal in my good book (banks, after all, are the major investors in Diebold machinery). Looks like bogus conditions arbitrarily laid out by New Hampshire’s Secretary of State Bill Gardner, an apparent enemy of democracy, is the obstruction to a proper vote count. My wife, who is from China, was astounded by how Kucinich was cut out of the debate. “Sounds like China,” she said, “‘If the nail sticks out, hammer it back in.'” US democracy has become the laughing-stock of the world from China to Tierra del Fuego.
Perhaps a major coup is in order in the United States, in which citizen-appointed police swoop into the offices of the entire Pentagon and war profiteering industry (NBC/GE etc), arrest the whole lot of them for sponsoring terrorism around the world, and ship them off to Guantanamo.
I attended UNCOUNTED at the Crest Theater in Sacramento. (Obviously I live there)
I got to meet Brad who is a very cool person in my opinion (Everyone in this nation needs to support Brad), I didn’t interview him or nothing like that. (Kind of wish I’d brought a camera in hindsight. It would have been great stuff for my local public access cable tv show.) I tried to get to the microphone, but the time ran out, and the line kind of did me in… I wanted to speak, not ask questions. If allowed to speak, I would have said the following.
If the candidates had until last Friday (by New Hampshire law) to apply and pay for a recount the Secretary of State should have to maintain the chain of custody (of all materials paper and electronic )at a minimum up until the time that a candidate has to officially request a recount.
If the chain of custody of the paper ballots is broken, this is now a patriotic litmus test for everyone in America being prepared in all precincts, districts states and territories to be ready, get laws in place now to completely nullify any election in this nation, (or it’s precincts, districts, states, territories) that broke the chain of custody, and to force a emergency special election immediately.
And that any sworn in candidate, measure, proposition, bill or anything that is voted on such an election, be either removed from office, nullified until it’s clear what the people wanted, it’s time to be rolling back and nullifying all law and candidates that can not be validated as actually elected or voted on.
Not just candidates should be able to request a recount. Citizens of the United States and it’s districts and territories should be able to request a recount.
All electronic vote tabulation devices need to be eliminated. It’s not just the software open source vs. closed source, it’s the hardware as well, nobody knows what happened at the doping level inside of any of the chips inside of these electronic vote tabulation devices without destructively reverse engineering them. (That means tearing them apart chip by chip, layer by layer under an electron microscope to look for anomalies. Anomalies that may or may not be found, I might add. Someone (Hursti? Felton? Curtis?) said in the UNCOUNTED that code couldn’t be made to remove itself without a trace, well I can tell you now that you can do that at the hardware level by BURNING UP LOGIC circuits. Basically a one time use specially crafted chip. And unless you can destructively reverse engineer all the chips you wouldn’t know. This is also in part why these electronic vote tabulation devices are unconstitutional.
If a device with unknown, hardware and software is to be used in an election, that device needs to be limited to providing one function: Assisting voters to Print a paper ballot to be hand counted.
A holiday, “Election Day” or “Election Week” needs to be enacted.
Anyone caught breaking the law that was involved in elections, or in control of elections needs a lot more time in jail than 18 months. How long? I don’t really know, it should be at least longer than twice the length of time that any candidate was elected. If not life itself. And they shouldn’t be allowed to work for any classified or unclassified, government, state, or for any company, corporation, LLC, or anyone else that contracts for the government. Any Whistle-blower however needs protection from all parties corporate, precinct, district, state, territory. (If this isn’t worded proper that’s because I ain’t a lawyer, if you are a lawyer and want to word this proper don’t screw up my intent.)
Precincts, that provide electronic devices that print ballots should also provide their own backup power supply. Trusting the grid is not enough.
And finally Everyone must follow the pre-Bush executive order years version of the US Constitution. (You know that damn piece of paper that we all grew up learning about in school, of visiting and looking at under the glass?!) Executive orders that are unconstitutional should be dropped and rejected the moment they are submitted. The current state of the constitution is so bad, that there can be only one reason for it. Abuse of power. And there should be laws for that too. In fact this whole loophole of immunity because of being a president needs to be plugged. If a president has broken his sworn oath of office, he or she should not have immunity from anything, he or she should be in a jail cell.
End of what I would have said…
Okay, with all that, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t get to speak.
I got to admit, I didn’t learn much from UNCOUNTED that I didn’t already know, but then I’ve been feasic of this issue, since somewhere around 2004.
Yes I came in late to this situation. And since that time I have always tried to think about this on my own. Using my knowledge of being a veteran in the USAF (aircraft electrician), electronics, digital logic, transmitters and receivers, programming, tcpip networking and network security as a systems administration for an ISP.
I really wish I could have spoke, but hey in fairness there probably wasn’t enough time.
It seems to me that we have 10 months or less to get our priorities straight. If it doesn’t happen there really can be no confidence in our elections. There seems to be no national standards, each State having it’s own chaotic way of messing things up. Policies and procedures be damned if basic security can not be enforced.
Kindest regards to Brad and all the folks that helped get the UNCOUNTED scheduled to roll at the Crest Theater. KSAC 1240AM, the Film Festival people, and the fine folks that actually attended. Everyone was nice, helpful, and I hope everyone who attended learned something and have decided to take some action. They might also notice that there isn’t many of us who really care about these issues, I’ve personally seen more people in that theater (The Crest) during an Yngwie Malmsteen concert. That’s not to say that the folks that attended are not the most patriotic in the nation for caring about our sacred elections.
I hope you all realize now, why I get so pissed off in these Bradblog.com threads over the years.
The news just keeps getting worse and worse about our civil liberties and the US Constitution. I don’t see that trend ever changing unless we regain our right to vote back.
Peace
~phil
One other thing I should have added about attending UNCOUNTED.
I didn’t see any media from the following local corporate media tv stations channels. None Zero Zip
3 KCRA, 6 PBS/KVIE, 10 KXTV ,13 KOVR ,19 ,31 KMAX ,40 KTXL ,58 KQCA
That would be ABC, CBS, NBC, Noticias Univision, KTFK (Univision affiliate) and FOX 40..
Channels 3 KCRA and 58 KQCA are owned by the same corporation
Channels 13 KOVR and 31 KMAX are owned by the same corporation. CBS 13/upn 31
Channels 19 and 64 have some kind of affiliation…
this basically includes ALL the local corporate media tv stations you pick up by rabbit ear antenna. In other words not one local media or so-called news tv station attended.
Only the radio station KSAC 1240AM had anyone in attendance.
There was one photographer getting busy, but I didn’t ask who he was…I didn’t want to bug him.
… Adam Fulford said…
“so I wouldn’t necessarily jump to saying that PayPal deliberately stalled the transfer process”
Actually I don’t think anyone here suggested that paypal had any direct “interest” in the recount.
But I have read, repeatedly, of people who choose to have a paypal account tied to their bank account then getting their available funding tied in knots by someone disputing a paypal transfer.
UPDATE FROM BRAD, 1/16/08, 1:05pm PT:
Thanks Brad. Now that NH recount is underway, when will the MI recount start? There is a reflection(?) of a Ron Paul supporter’s blog telling of his voting experience yesterday. Very distressing.
Per Clinton people watching the recount: I truly doubt that they had any thing to do with the LHS voting machine problems, but I would believe that the machines could be fixed to make her win when she did not just to make her, and thus all Dems look bad.
While not a Paul supporter, I would think that his money raising would be reflected in the vote and it’s not, so I am suspicious about this, too.
Some one’s ****ing with democracy.
CNN and Lou Dobbs are finally joining in the election integrity parade. The are reporting that SC has ES&S machines without paper trails. Since these machines have been proven to malfunction or be hacked the election may be in question in SC, compared to NH where they are recounting and they have a paper trail (still hackable).
Thank you CNN for finally joining in the concern. The worst part of the report was that Dobbs had the gall to say that the states were realizing their problems and making changes too late to do anything, eventhough the issue of election integrity has been widely reported. Really?
Besides the blogosphere (and especially Bradblog) who is doing the wide reporting of this? Not CNN. Where were CNN (or other MSM) reporters two years ago when investigations would have given state and local elections officials time to do the right assessments and get the right equipment? Don’t CYA and pass the buck onto the election officials Dobbs. You are the one who dropped the ball!!
Be ready for more “I told you so”s from MSM.