Because the nation wasn’t embarrassed enough by the Florida situation in 2000, NH is getting treated to recounts by both parties.
Dennis Kucinich has driven the recount in the Democratic side, and Albert Howard is bringing us the Republican recount. Apparently, Howard couldn’t believe that he actually broke 40 votes.
With Alan Keyes threatening to sue Iowa and Howard and Kucinich making spectacles out of NH, I think that we can all look forward to a long, agonizing primary season … recounts in every state, lawsuits galore, and maybe even some real fun.
Some jackasses (not a part of the campaign, and rebuked by several other supporters) are demanding that the town clerk of Sutton, NH be suspended. This, by the way, demonstrates said jackass’s profound ignorance of civics … since the Secretary of State can’t suspend a town clerk.
This issue won’t go away. Any slight irregularity will, no doubt, be taken as proof of corruption. We can look forward to this in every state if someone doesn’t rein this malarkey in, and soon. Won’t it be fun to follow Super Tuesday with Super Recount Friday? I hope that we can depose at least a dozen town clerks, and maybe a mayor or two.
Maybe we can take the primaries all the way to the Supreme Court with lawsuits. You know, taking the election there in 2000 was one thing, but I think we can get an early start this time around. That would be so much more fun.
January 14, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Hey, don’t forget all of the secret smoke-filled room deals if there is a brokered convention. (Insert eye-roll here.)
January 15, 2008 at 12:13 am
Wickle – I really don’t know what to say. I have been so appalled by the way that poor clerk has been treated.. all for a simple mistake that was handled the next morning. I do hope that they figure out who exactly was harrassing her… and file charges. Their behaviour is completely unacceptable.
I notice a couple other precincts had revisions to their numbers also the next morning… so it seems the system was working and it was simple error. People double checked the next day and corrected anything that needed to be corrected (and really, it was such a small amount… it doesn’t even make sense to claim fraud!)
Mistakes happen… they are usually caught and fixed… people are making mountains out of molehills.
And, I am afraid it is only going to get worse. I think those of us in the early states are actually lucky… I think it will only get messier and nastier as it goes on.
January 15, 2008 at 9:44 am
I think you’re right. Given that some states have touch-screen voting, I would not be at all surprised if at least one primary is contested all the way to the Supreme Court. I do want to repeat — several people did rebuke the guy who sent the letter regarding Sutton.
Someone remarked that the problem in Sutton was that we didn’t have enough machines counting the votes … that was a good comeback.
I don’t like paperless voting because I think recounts should always be an option … but I don’t mind machines that count paper ballots. We count votes in NH the same way SAT’s are scored — the machine reads filled-in ovals on pieces of paper that are retained.
I also don’t mind recounts if there are legitimate concerns. I do object to seeing a civil servant being maligned by more people than live in her town because someone made a clerical error.
January 15, 2008 at 5:34 pm
The way the clerk has been treated is totally unfair. If people want to call for recounts, that’s fine, but everyone should respect civil servants. Despite our divergent political views, this is one thing that you and I can agree on.
That being said, I think that any time touchscreen voting is being used, there is a valid case for challenging the results. Fancy new technology is useful for certain things, but sometimes it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Expedience does not equal quality. A microwave is fine for making a snack, but you don’t use it to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Elections are like Thanksgiving dinner and electronic voting machines are like microwaves. Does that makes sense?
The entire country should just go back to paper ballots.
January 15, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I think you’re right about anything paperless, and I think that the Thanksgiving image is brilliant.
I don’t mind machines that count paper, as we use in NH, but I don’t think that anyone should be using a system with no verification.
I also think that this should be the kind of thing that unites all interested parties. As much as I resent the way this is being handled, there should always be a way to verify the results.
January 17, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I guess I don’t know anything about the situation (a civil servant being mistreated? clerical errors?), but there should always be a verifiable paper trail. The Diebold machines are just not reliable, and should never have been bought in the first place.
January 18, 2008 at 12:16 am
The town clerk of Sutton, NH (population <1800) is facing demands that she be fired, indicted, and all kinds of things for “vote fraud,” mostly by people who apparently don’t know what fraud is. The town had 31 votes for Ron Paul, but initially reported 0. When someone was reporting the vote counts and copying the numbers from one sheet to the formal reporting sheet, the number was missed.
This, by the way, was a town that does everything by hand. It has been remarked that if the votes in Sutton were counted by machine, the error wouldn’t have happened.
As I’ve said, I don’t mind machines that count paper ballots. I do object to anything paperless (and thus unverifiable).
My ultimate point is that people are caught up in their anger and aren’t waiting to look for facts.
Apparently, there’s going to be a combined MLK Day/Vote Protest march on Concord, NH this Monday. Won’t that be fun? Maybe I’ll go and write about it.
January 19, 2008 at 3:30 am
Well, I’m sure MLK would want votes to be counted correctly, so there is a connection there. You can’t have one of the most important civil rights (voting) if people are not counting the votes properly.
I think votes are tallied too fast. Everyone wants the results sent in so they can be reported to the media immediately. Honestly, out of the things that the county clerk’s office does, this is the most important. If it takes months to count the votes, so be it, we can wait. The office should be preparing for this all year, and it should be a methodical undertaking that is undergone slowly and carefully (and double-checked for errors like these). That’s my opinion, anyway. In the rush to report the results, mistakes will obviously be made.
If people were threatening this person, that was taking it way overboard.