Dennis Kucinich could pay 24 cents a ballot to address concerns over "discrepancies between hand and machine-counted results."
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner cut open the first box of ballots shortly after 10 o’clock,
"Sfx…..box cuts"
Gardner then issued the 12 counters, who worked in teams of two, some basic marching orders.
"I want a fair recount, and to do that we need to look at every single ballot, and let the candidate have observers and look at the ballots. That’s what out reount is -- a count of the ballots of that were cast at the polling place."
Within minutes, the state archives reading room took was filled with the staccato rhythms making their way though returns from Manchester.
"Clinton, Clinton, Obama, Obama, Edwards, Clinton, Clinton Richardson."
By law any candidate who received even a single vote is allowed to post an observer to review the and challenge the decisions made by each recount team…….The only candidates to send observers on day one, were Dennis Kucinich and Demcoratic primary winner Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s state campaign co-chair Kathy Sullivan worked the first observer shift, and she says they’re no reason to doubt the count from election night.
"NH has always had good elections and recounts in the past have shown that Bill Gardner is one of the best secretaries of states when it comes to running elctions."
Sullivan adds though that team Clinton has 50 volunteers signed up toi work the recount for as long as it lasts. And, for now at least, they won’t be alone.
"My name is Patty Schaefer, and I'm the director of the Ohio Election Justice Campaign."
"I'm Sally Castleman, I live in Massachusetts, and I'm part of Election Defense Alliance."
"I'm Susan Pynchon, I'm an executive diretor of the Florida Fair Elections Commission."
Those are just some of the non-local election reform activists who came to the recount over concerns about NH’s vote counting machines and their failure to preserve all vote data collected on election night……The activists and Deputy Attorney general Bud Fitch had a lengthy public discussion of tehir concerns. Neither side gave much ground.
"The NH election system preserves an adequate amount of information about the election to conduct an investigation if the grounds to conduct an investigation arise."
"Even if the votes have been eliminated?"
"There's no votes that have been eliminated."
The recount will resume later this morning. State officials say it will last until all ballots are counted, which could take several weeks, or it could end anytome Dennis Kucinich decides to call it off.
