Based on Senator Bob Giuda’s Op-Eds “The Windham Incident – Election Results vs Recount Totals” and “The Windham Incident Deception“, alarms went off throughout the Town of Windham when the AG’s office informed Windham of their plans to “take possession” of Windham’s voting machines (see appended email). Those are the SAME MACHINES and includes the SAME PEOPLE that are embroiled in the middle of the “Windham Incident” – the largest unexplained discrepancy in the history of New Hampshire between election day results and a hand recount. The fox wants to guard the hen house!
“In anticipation of the passage of SB43 by the Legislature, the Attorney General’s and Secretary of State’s Offices would like to schedule a time to take possession of Windham’s ballot counting devices (BCDs) and associated materials.”
That sound like a nice way to say “confiscate”, and it is disturbing. The AG’s office wants Windham’s four Diebold AccuVote machines and all of the peripheral equipment, the original chain of custody logs, memory cards, and access keys for all four machines. Something doesn’t smell right. Do the audit in Windham. Do it under Windham’s control.
Remember the shenanigans that took place in many other states that either ignored election irregularities or outright covered them up? Think that can’t happen here? What happens if the machines “get lost” during the move to Concord?
Windham’s high level of mistrust and consternation is warranted. The AG’s office and SOS have been performing a Jedi Mind Trick for months. Now they are being FORCED to perform an audit – and they want control of the ballots and machines ahead of time. The optics of that is horrible. I’ve been told several Windham town officials are against relinquishing control as well – and I hope they stand strong.
The audit should be performed in Windham – and under Windham’s control – as suggested here. According to multiple attorney’s opinions… NH laws already allow a town’s Selectmen to perform the test – WITHOUT APPROVAL of the AG or SOS:
RSA 33-A Defines the ballots as municipal documents that are owned by the town, and;
RSA 656:40 Authorizes towns to purchase and own voting machines and;
RSA 656:42 VIII. (c) (11) Authorizes the moderator to perform pre-election certification testing of the voting machines, and;
Bal 602.01 (a) The city or town clerk is the custodian of the voting machines, and;
Bal 602.01 (c) Authorizes the selectmen to designate and define the duties of election officials to prepare and test the machines prior to an election…
So what’s the problem. Why is Windham being prevented by the AG and SOS from running their own test, on their own equipment, with their own ballots? What am I missing?
Below is the correspondence between the AG’s and SOS’s offices and Windham regarding the pending visit to “take possession.”
Note: page (3 of 3) was blank.