Nothing found yet in NH recount, perhaps because of complete muddle in chain of custody.

[Stevepol]

NH evidently just turns everything related to the Diebold voting machines over to LHS to do with as they please. They don't keep track of the memory cards, don't keep them the time required by law perhaps, LHS has pretty much the run of the place, and the elections officials don't really care.

The best run-down of all this is at www.blackboxvoting.org. Susan Pynchon and a number of other dedicated activists have joined Bev in videotaping the process and questioning officials every step of the way. It appears that there's not much being done to assure that the ballots being counted are the real ballots counted on the machine, no way of knowing what the machine counts might be because the memory cards are missing, etc.

In other words, there's going to still be plenty of suspicion about whether the vote in this primary was counted fairly.

It fits pretty well with what I was thinking when the recount took place in 04. There had to be something going on, I felt, and I attributed it to something having to do with the way the votes are handled and trannsported or what have you. Who knows? Here's a bit from bbv about the state of the NH elections procedures with regard to LHS and the voting machines.



Red Flags on the NH Recount

1-16-08: HOW NEW HAMPSHIRE IS SIZING UP

After enumberating some very good aspects of the NH situation, Harris goes into the bad, and it's pretty bad:


(1) A reckless reliance on a sole source private contractor. Not particularly bothered that the company has private chain of custody during critical points, no policy or even apparent concern with having convicted felons involved in the voting system.

(2) Use of a system with known defects without even taking any mitigation steps that other states took.

(3) NO REQUIREMENT to even save the memory cards. The explanation is that they get a disk with the "program" on it. VotersUnite attorney Jon Bonifaz questioned the assistant attorney general on this closely today, because federal law requires records retention of 22 months on electronic media.

New Hampshire has a haphazard policy of allowing the memory cards to be kept, or not, with a chain of custody, or not, shipping back to LHS, or not, and it's perfectly okay with New Hampshire if the memory cards are erased altogether the day after the election. They profess to believe that if they just have LHS ship them a disk containing some purported program -- BEFORE the election, when there aren't even any votes registered -- everything is okay. No one could tell us if this is the memory card program, or the GEMS database file, or the optical scan chip. They seem to have no idea what they are doing with this and I would call this wilfull ignorance,... More

snip....

Here's a very pertinent comment by a poster at the BBV site regarding Harris's report:

If there has been ANY TIME AT ALL that ballots OR memory cards have been OUT of the custody of a state Employee and a reputable witness (not an LHS employee; either a second state employee or representatives of the parties OR the leading candidates if a primary), then the possibility exists for "stuffing" and the results possibly tainted. I have yet to see the recount results for Manchester, but I imagine nothing has changed.

Link: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[Windy]

1. God I hope this can be fixed by next november... what a herculean task n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. If no problems are found, it's because there are problems?

At that point it really becomes a matter of conspiracy theories.

[EFerrari]

3. We have a chain of custody problem. That's not a conspiracy theory,

it's just their bad practice.

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. You missed the mention of she who does not deserve to be named

But hint: she needs a continuing issue to continue to make money.

[New Earth]

8. votes were found in the recount that weren't counted

in the first count. That's a problem.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Knowing this made the expense of the recount worthwhile

We must get this fixed before November.

[riqster]

7. Only if we get the word out

...especially to the anti-recount Dems.

[riqster]

6. VoldeBev is an asshole

But even assholes are right at times. And Bonifaz is a good guy and knows his stuff.