Republican Primary Recount Begins

By Brian Lawson, PolitickerNH.com Reporter

CONCORD- The Republican recount for the New Hampshire primary began this morning in Concord.

The statewide recount has been paid by Republican presidential candidate Albert Howard and will take almost three weeks to complete.

Howard (R-Mich.) said he decided to pay $57,000 for a statewide recount because he does not trust the electronic voting machines. He was in Concord on Thursday in a suit and tie watching intently as the recount took place.

"I believe the Constitution says we should have paper ballots and we don't with these electronic machines," Howard said in an interview."Canada has paper ballots and it takes them four hours to complete the tally, yet the United States can't."

Howard also said he would not pass judgment on the process until the recount is completed.

Deputy Secretary of State David Scalon said "it's a part of the process; hopefully we walk away from this having more confidence in the process."

Dennis Kucinich had challenged the Democratic primary results but the recount was stopped when Kucinich's campaign did not pay to finish the recount. Kucinich dropped out of the Democratic presidential race on Thursday.

BRIAN LAWSON is a PolitickerNH.com Reporter and can be reached via email at brian.lawson@politickernh.com.

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Comments

Waste of Money

posted by nhprman

He has every right to call for a recount, and to pay for it. But in Manchester, we already DO use paper ballots, and they are counted electronically.

The same is true for many, many small towns around this city. I'm not sure how they do it in Concord, Nashua and elsewhere, however.

I suppose for Mr. Howard, or for people like the guy with the boot on his head who put their names on the ballot on a lark, a few votes gained is worth the money. But in general, it's a waste of time.

Didn't I read that Kucinich actually LOST votes in his party's recount? Ouch.

The hysteria, mistrust and cynicism fostered by exercises like these are very damaging, in my view.

01/26/08 2:45 pm

Trust and verify

posted by

By law, everywhere in NH uses paper ballots. Some are machine counted, some hand-counted.

The hysteria, mistrust and cynicism fostered by exercises like these are very damaging, in my view.

Seeing recounts as somehow an affront to democracy is fundamentally silly. Most of those who take part in them don't subscribe to conspiracy theories but still see recounts as valuable, and are strongly opposed to attempts to make them more difficult to obtain. If anything, hysteria, mistrust and cynicism are defused by these exercises nhprman seems to so deplore.

If you want orderly elections without recounts, I'm sure Pyongyang would be happy to have you.

01/26/08 3:31 pm

RECOUNT

posted by

To suggest that a recount is bad or a waste of time is a set up for a collapse in public trust...it has already happened and is spreading. I see this as a great and powerful event that will help rid us of electronic machines and restore fully transparent voting with paper ballots, common sense. It is now a priority for America and I feel blessed America is taking on the mission to rid offices of people that hinder the effort.

02/01/08 1:23 pm