Trailing Candidates Request N.H. Recount

Dennis Kucinich Registered 1.4 Percent Of The Vote; Albert Howard Received About 44 Votes

(AP)  New Hampshire officials said Friday they will conduct a hand recount of the state's Democratic and Republican presidential primaries at the request of two minor candidates.

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who received less than 1.4 percent of the vote, and Republican Albert Howard of Michigan, who received about 44 votes statewide, are expected to pay a $2,000 fee to start the process, state officials said.

"Mr. Howard has satisfied the requirements for initiating a statewide recount of the Republican primary," Secretary of State William Gardner said in a statement. Officials said they expected a check from Kucinich to arrive late Friday, satisfying his requirements for the request.

Gardner is preparing an estimate of the recount's cost, which the requesting candidates must pay before it will begin. He said he expects to start the recount Wednesday, and will announce further details once the payments have been received.

Under state law, if a candidate finished more than 3 percentage points behind the winner, the candidate must pay the cost of a recount. The cost is refunded if the recount finds the requester won or finished within 1 percentage point of the winner.

The last time New Hampshire did a statewide recount of the results of the presidential primary was in 1980.

Kucinich sent a letter to Gardner Thursday requesting the recount, citing "serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" about the integrity of the primary results.

The top vote-getters in Tuesday's primary were Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, with 39 percent and Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, with 37 percent.

[candide777]

In other words, Clinton had 57.4% of the op scan vote but Obama had 57.4% of the actual count(see Daily Kos).
Stay tuned.
Posted by realpatriot1 at 07:21 PM : Jan 12, 2008

What did the exit polls show? It appears that Fox News has started a campaign now to convince Americans that they lie to the poll takers, so that when election results don''t match the poll results, we''ll just oh, that''s cause, as everyone knows, everyone lies to the poll takers. Why do you think Fox wants us to believe that people typically lie about who they are going to vote for?

[rowdytexan2]

I don''t think we need a recount based on poll results. There was a record turnout the polls couldn''t even take into consideration.

But I do think they need to check out the voting machines and agree it does need to be done before the general election.

If the Neocon republicans are engineering the elections again, it needs to be stopped now!

[skywyze]

Suppose you have 5 hot dogs stands at the Superbowl.

You hire somebody to count your hot dog sales and give you a report.

After you get home and get your hot dog sales report, you see that you did not sell any hot dogs at Stand #4.

Great. Fine. No problem (bad location maybe? no marketing? who knows....)

THEN somebody says to you "hey, I love your dogs...I bought 3 hot dog at Stand #4"

So you call your hot dog counters and they say "oh...yeah...you did sell a few dogs at Stand #4...we just wrote it wrong"

What do you do?

[candide777]

Stay tuned.
Posted by realpatriot1 at 07:21 PM : Jan 12, 2008

These are very dangerous days -- I, like many Americans, would like to demand independent verification of election results, but there are already so many corrupt politicians in office that it seems doubtful we will ever have it (and by corrupt, I mean, willing to change election results through fraud).

[realpatriot1]

Candidie777,

New Hampshire used Diebold optical scanners to tally the paper ballots. The news media has already conducted a sample recount and found the actual vote and the op scan vote were exactly the same percentage-wise but with the candidates for those voted switched.

In other words, Clinton had 57.4% of the op scan vote but Obama had 57.4% of the actual count(see Daily Kos).

Stay tuned.

[candide777]

The larger issue here is republican efforts to make the tallying of votes a secret and unverifiable process. One only needs to look at the consistent and systematic efforts by republicans to block any efforts to ensure the integrity of the counts to know that republicans are unapologetic about the fact that they are anti-democracy and will do whatever it takes to steal elections from the people. The only "voter fraud" republicans are allegedly concerned about has to do with restricting who can vote and how many forms of ID will be required. But when it comes to actually counting the votes, republicans prefer to leave that to Deibold''s corrupt software. It''s astonishing that the media does not follow this issue, which is a far greater threat to our democracy than any terrorist cell.

[demwatcher]

Maybe then we can learn how someone that was TRAILING in the polls by double digits won.

[ptden]

It makes no difference whether a candidate has a chance to move up in position. It''s a matter of voter fraud. It''s a fundamental principal.

[svwl]

Kucinich and Howard deserve to be commended for demanding the recount. We all, Democrat or Republican, should be thanking them for the service they are doing to our democracy. They have no hope of winning, but for the sake of the sanctity of our democracy they are forwarding the cash.
If we don''t have legitimate voting, then our democracy is useless.

It is sad that everyone above assumes that the only reason that they are demanding the recount is because they think they will win. If you know anything about Dennis Kucinich, he wouldn''t hold onto a fool''s hope. And to assert that he just wants Hillary to lose is ludicrous. His warchest is far too paltry to throw away for Obama or Edward''s benefit.

Why don''t people just think?

[sgtrds]

44 votes? And he wants a recount? Now that''s ridiculous!