Nader-Camejo Hand Recount in New Hampshire Ends With No Significant Discrepancies

New Hampshire’s optical scan machines predate Diebold’s purchase of company that manufactured them

Washington, DC: The Nader-Camejo hand recount in New Hampshire ended Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. when the last of the 11 selected wards was counted. Nader-Camejo requested recounts on Nov. 5 in precincts where the Diebold AccuVote optical scan machine was used, and where the reported vote count favored President George W. Bush by 5% to 15% over what was expected based on exit polls and voting trends in New Hampshire. The Nader-Camejo campaign received more than 2,000 faxes from citizens urging a recount.

In the eleven wards recounted, only very minor discrepancies were found between the optical scan machine counts of the ballots and the recount. The discrepancies are similar to those found when hand-counted ballots are recounted.

No conclusions can be drawn about the reliability of electronic voting machines on the basis of the New Hampshire recount, because the machines used in the 11 selected wards predate those showing irregularities in Ohio and other states, where votes were counted backward on some machines and votes were assigned to the wrong candidate on others. Secretary of State William Gardner reported that the machines used in New Hampshire also predate the Diebold Corporation’s purchase of the company that manufactured them. However, the case reinforces the Nader-Camejo call for a voter verified paper ballot trail for random audits and independent recounts to confirm the accuracy of questionable results.

“It would not have been possible to satisfy voter concerns about the fairness of the election in these wards without the paper trail New Hampshire has kept in place,” said Amy Belanger, coordinator of the Nader-Camejo recount effort. “Given the vulnerability of electronic voting machines to tampering, hacking or simple malfunctions, a paper trail is essential to the integrity of our democratic system.”

The voting machines in the selected New Hampshire wards were purchased after manufacture and installation by Diebold Corporation, whose top officers were major contributors to the Bush campaign. The software on which votes are counted is protected as a corporate trade secret and voting rights groups report no independent audit is performed on the machines or the software, making the machines vulnerable to undetected programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering.

“Turning over the counting of votes to corporations gives new meaning to the term ‘corporate power,’” said Ralph Nader. “Three or four proprietary corporations being given the authority to count the vote on trade secreted software undermines the transparency of elections. With other obstructions and massive corporate campaign cash, they threaten the very foundation of our democracy – its elections.”

Voting-rights groups have joined with third-party candidates to initiate recounts in other states, including Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada. Nader-Camejo will continue to work with voters rights groups to ensure these issues are addressed.

“Voters need to have confidence that their vote is being counted accurately,” said Nader. “Even in an election year with record turnout, tens of millions of Americans did not vote. We need to give people a reason to vote and that includes ensuring votes are counted accurately.”