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You know, over the last few days, I've read dozens of threads alleging improprieties with the NH Primary election and I have to tell you, as a long-term NH voter, I just don't buy it.
Yes, we count *SOME* of our ballots using Diebold optiscan systems. Yes, you *COULD* doubtless hack these systems. But there are several factors arguing strongly against that:
1. Here in NH, we *ALL* vote on paper ballots. Whether they're counted by a machine or by Martha, the town clerk, the paper ballots remain. If there were a hint of impropriety, a hand-recount could confirm or deny that. And given that paper back-up of our vote, the risk of tampering with the counting machines is just too high. Any evidence of systematic tampering would be exposed and this exposure would blow right out of the water any further possibilities to steal some other election where there *ISN'T* a paper trail.
Also, at least in Nashua, our machines were programmed to reject over-votes. I saw this happen myself to the voter in front of me at the polls; she had filled in the oval and slashed off to the right from the oval and the machine rejected her ballot several times before counting it. And the ward workers were ready to give her a substitute ballot if that had failed.
2. But I hear the next level of argument: The paper ballots were tampered with. I'm sorry, but I don't buy this either. The way the poll station closing procedures are designed, it would take too many people conspiring. And in my city, I *KNOW* the ward workers and they know me and we've each known each other for years. Yes, the ward moderator is a Republican and a pain in the butt, but she's not a vote thief. And even if she was vote thief, the next several officials down the line aren't partisan and wouldn't willingly join in the conspiracy to steal an election.
3. Finally, you don't need exit polls to know, *IN GENERAL*, how a race is going. I've held signs enough times that I can tell you which candidates are winning and which candidates are losing throughout the election day. And the results in my ward pretty much matched my gut for how things were going to turn out. Sure, I couldn't tell you by what percent Clinton beat Obama in my ward, but I could certainly tell you that my guy, Edwards, finished far lower than either of the leaders. And Kucinich? He had no supporters, one sign stuck in the snow across the street from the polls, and a lot of people commiserating with me about how they'd really like to have voted for Kuch but stopping Hillary was far more important to them.
The *ONE THING* that New Hampshire could do that it's not already doing is that the Secretary of State (who runs the elections) should, after the election and the count, pick some small number of polling places at random and audit those, doing a hand recount and checking against the previously- announced tally. Because no one would know ahead of time which polling places would be audited, this would make the risk of tampering even higher.
And I've written to the SoS suggesting that he start doing that exact thing.
The bottom line is that I'm confident that the announced count from our primary was a reasonably accurate reflection of the voters' true intent. Some folks won, some folks lost, but I think it was a fair election.
Tesha
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