Update: When the Windham Board of Selectmen attempted to open the meeting, the zoom capacity was maxed out, causing the discussion on the election audit and SB43 to be rescheduled for March 1, 2021, at 7p.
Continue for the Original Article Published 2-22-21
The Windham Board of Selectmen will meet tonight at 7p to discuss SB43 and the pending election audit (assuming the Bill passes the House). The current Bill authorizes the AG’s office and the Secretary of State to perform the audit. However, I believe their positions have been compromised by showing their predispositions to dismiss our concerns regarding the largest unexplained machine count vs. hand count election results discrepancy in the history of NH.
We have to get this right! But from the very beginning, there appears to be a conflict of interest. I make those uncomfortable assertions based on these quotes from State Senator Bob Giuda:
“Seeking to quell the growing political clamor resulting from its refusal to look into the Windham Incident, the Attorney General’s office has now publicly claimed that it is “investigating” the matter. This is a misleading half-truth. From my experience as a former FBI Agent, they are NOT doing an investigation; they are doing what is known as a document review. They have no intention of doing what’s actually necessary to get to the heart of the issue: rerun the ballots through the machines and perform a hand count to determine the actual number of ballots that were cast.”
“To be clear, five State Senators, the Senate legal counsel, and the Assistant Secretary of State were all on the February 5th Zoom call in which assistant AG Edwards and Election Law Chief Chong Yen stated categorically that they are not going to investigate the machines or the total ballot count – the only two actions that can provide the answer to what exactly happened. Their document review will do nothing to determine whether there was a machine error or a recount error.”
“So instead of doing the right thing, as requested by the entire spectrum of those involved in the incident, the AG’s office is performing “damage control” to camouflage its refusal to investigate the machines and the ballots that produced the largest unexplained recount error in NH history.”
Senate Bill SB43 contains language that allows for the AG and SOS to perform a cursory audit and sweep this issue under the rug.
“The audit shall include hand counting 4 separate sets of ballots from the Rockingham county district 7 state representative race.“
“The secretary of state and attorney general shall determine, in their discretion, the manner and process for conducting the audit.“
The Bill DOES NOT mandate an audit of all ballots, NOR an audit of all races. In essence, it authorizes the Secretary of State to perform a MEANINGLESS audit of the Windham November general election.
The foxes will guard the hen house with legislative cover. That’s nonsense.
With those disturbing thoughts in mind… Windham – and not the State – must perform the audit on our town’s voting machines. Sadly, I believe this approach will be the only way to determine the reason(s) for the largest unexplained election discrepancy in the history of our state. I believe there is no other alternative – and that Windham must insist on it – or there will forever be unanswered questions and a justifiable lack of confidence in our election process.
The proposal below is intended to define an audit process for the town’s voting machines. It was sent to the Windham Board of Selectmen to discuss at the Feb. 22 meeting – with the goal to outline a meaningful audit run by the town of Windham and include input from other Windham residents to ensure the audit is unbiased and thorough. That is a challenging, but important step.
Windham is a town with very strong personalities. But up until now… we have been united on this issue. Up until now, we have stood in unison – and called for our election results to be thoroughly investigated by the AG and Secretary of State. We have been patient, but we are patient no more.
We want answers. We want the truth! And we can handle the truth! Can the AG and Secretary of State say the same?
Here is the proposal. It was written by myself and Dr. David Strang, with input from Senator Bob Giuda.
The Gov, AG and SOS are watching. Let them know how you feel and send a strong message in the comments section below. We all have a vested interest to ensure our voting machines work properly.
Windham AccuVote ES2000 Model A Audit Procedures (Proposal)
Definitions –
1. “Audit” means the authorized investigation of the Rockingham County district 7 election results.
2. “Ballots” means all of the ballots processed for the November 3, 2020 General Election, in Windham, New Hampshire.
3. “Vote Tally Results” means the total number of votes received per candidate for all races on the Ballots.
4. “November General Election” means the November 3, 2020 General Election.
5. “Ballot Boxes” means all of the boxes containing the ballots from the town of Windham’s November General Election.
6. “Ballot Counting Device” means a Windham’s Diebold AccuVote ES2000 Model A machine identically configured with the original memory cards as they were during the November General Election to generate Vote Tally Results
Audit Procedures –
The Audit will be conducted in Windham, in full view of the public during the week of March 1, 2021, and be started and completed in a single day as follows;
1. Windham’s four Ballot Counting Devices shall be used for this Audit.
2. The Audit will be live streamed and recorded using multiple cameras and separately recorded to capture all aspects of the Audit process. The recorded videos will be posted for on-demand viewing.
3.. The integrity of the audit must be unquestionable.
I. Ballot Boxes shall remain within view of a camera at all times. The Ballot Boxes shall not be unsealed until the Audit begins. The unsealing of Ballot Boxes shall be recorded on camera. All ballots shall remain within view of a camera at all times while not stored within a ballot box or Ballot Counting Device.
II. Anyone with a potential conflict of interest shall be prohibited from direct involvement with the Audit. This includes anyone who was involved with Windham’s November General Election, or anyone employed by or associated with LHS Associates. Prohibited individuals shall not be involved with any aspect of the “hands on” investigation, nor be eligible to be “up close and personal” due to potential conflicts of interest. Election officials/moderators from neighboring towns shall be asked to handle the Ballots and setup the Ballot Counting Devices.
III. Accommodations will be made for the following people to observe “up close and personal” during the Audit;
a. Two Windham Selectman and their designees
b. Senator Bob Giuda and his designees
c. Senator Birdsell and her designees
d. Senate President Morse
e. Speaker Packard
IV. Any of the “up close and personal” observers have the right to object, at any time, exactly as an election challenger is allowed to do. If such an objection is registered, the investigation will be immediately stopped until agreement is reached allowing the investigation to proceed.
V. No one from the Secretary of State’s Office shall be involved with any “hands on” aspect of the investigation process due to a potential conflict of interest.
VI. No one from the Attorney General’s Office shall be involved with any “hands on” aspect of the investigation process due to a potential conflict of interest.
4. The Ballots will be divided into 4 separate sets of ballots. The size of each set of ballots will be identical in proportion to those inserted into each Ballot Counting Device on November 3rd (i.e. 1,373 ballots for Machine 1; 3,276 ballots for Machine 2; 2,795 ballots for Machine 3; 2,482 ballots for Machine 4).
5. In order to more closely replicate the November General Election process of counting votes with the Ballot Counting Devices, each set of ballots will contain an evenly distributed proportion of straight Republican ballots, straight Democrat ballots, mixed vote ballots and blank ballots..
6. Each separate set of ballots will be hand counted to determine:
I. The number of ballots in each set.
II. The number of blank ballots in each set.
III The number of overvoted ballots.
IV. The number of undervoted ballots
V. The number of votes for each candidate.
VI. The number of blank votes. Blank votes are counted as follows:
a. Undercounted votes per ballot (anywhere from 1 to 4)
b. Blank ballots will be counted as 4 blank votes.
c. Overvoted ballots will be counted as 4 blank votes.
VII. The total number of votes per write-in candidates.
VIII. The total number of votes will be tallied by combining the following totals:
a. The total number of votes tallied for each candidate
b. The total number of blank votes
c. The total number of write-in votes
7. The total number of hand counted votes tallied will be compared to the maximum possible votes for the number of ballots per set. If the difference is greater than 30 votes of the possible set total, then steps 6 and 7 shall be repeated before moving on to the next step. Upon completion of this step for each set of ballots, the results shall be made public immediately.
8. In order to more closely replicate the election day process of counting votes with the Ballot Counting Devices, each set of ballots will be shuffled to intermix the presorted ballots.
9. To allow for a direct comparison, each set of ballots will be counted by the Ballot Counting Device used to determine the proportion of ballots for that set. Upon completion of each device counted set of ballots, a paper tape shall be printed and made available to the public immediately.
10. Each set of ballots shall be counted with each Ballot Counting Device. Upon completion of each device counted set of ballots, the paper tape results shall be printed and made available to the public immediately.
11. After a set of ballots has been counted with each Ballot Counting Device, the results of the paper tapes will be compared with each other and against the hand count – and the results will be made available to the public immediately
12. Upon completion of step 11 for all sets of ballots, the 4 separate sets of ballots will be combined into a single set of ballots. All of the Ballots will be then be run in entirety through each Ballot Counting Device. Immediately after each Ballot Counting Device has counted all of the ballots, a paper tape shall be printed and made available to the public immediately. The results of the paper tapes will be compared with each other and against the total of the hand count – and the results will be made available to the public immediately
13. Upon completion, the Ballots will be returned to the Ballot Boxes, sealed, and stored in the Windham Safe by the Town Clerk.
INDEPENDENT AUDIT
Subsequent to the Audit defined above, and on a different day defined by the Windham Selectmen, the Ballots will be scanned using a third party scanning device to count the votes for each race.
Subsequent to the Audit defined above,and on a different day to be defined by the Windham Selectmen, each of the Windham Ballot Counting Devices will be forensically audited by a third party.
There will be no cost to the Town of Windham or the State of NH for these independent audits.
