NH Recount: Disparities Found
Early reports indicate that irregularities are being found in the New Hampshire recount. All conspiracies aside–Hillary won–We’re seeing discrepancies between the election night vote and the hand recount. Although the differences seem to be relatively minor across the state, they cumulatively pose serious questions about the voting process there.
You can see the differences for yourself here on NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner’s site. The recount isn’t complete, so the page will be updated as results pour in from the remaining counties.
Currently, the official line is that nothing is wrong. Manchester TV station WMUR reports that the recount has found “no problems.” The mainstream media continues to operate under that same premise although conspicuous evidence to the contrary is available.
For instance, Democratic candidates lost 151 votes in Manchester Ward 5 alone.
These numbers stand in contrast to the SOS’s spin: “We did nine of the 12 wards in Manchester, and a lot of the votes were exactly the same,” [SOS] Gardner said. “Some went up by a vote or two.” That statement is not corroborated by vote recount totals released for Manchester.
Although SOS Gardner contends ‘a lot’ of the recounts produced no change and only ’some’ wards changed by ‘one or two votes,’ numbers tallied by brianmcguigan.com indicate that no wards were perfect or off by one vote, and only one ward changed by two votes. In sum, Manchester’s vote totals were off by 257 votes.
While recount totals from the remaining counties are required to determine how widespread the discrepancies are, the data in hand depicts serious vote tallying errors in Hillsborough County.
It’s still unclear what factor electronic voting played in this fiasco. There is no touch screen voting in New Hampshire. Rather, 80% of the state’s precincts use optical vote scanners made by Premier Election Systems (formerly Diebold). A list of these precincts can be found here. Notably missing is Manchester’s Ward 5.
A comparison between vote recounts and the list of precincts that use vote scanners suggests that electronic voting may escape the blame on this one. That puts the onus on the hand count and human error.
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