{"id":548772,"date":"2021-06-01T18:06:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T22:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=548772"},"modified":"2021-06-01T18:06:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T22:06:53","slug":"nh-election-audit-shows-machine-error-gave-extra-votes-to-local-democrat-determines-no-fraud-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nh-election-audit-shows-machine-error-gave-extra-votes-to-local-democrat-determines-no-fraud-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"NH Election Audit Shows Machine Error Gave Extra Votes To Local Democrat; Determines No \u2018Fraud,\u2019 \u2018Bias\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnh-election-audit-shows-machine-error-gave-extra-votes-to-local-democrat-determines-no-fraud-bias%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=548772&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232996580.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>Machine-tabulated 2020 election results in Windham, New Hampshire, were likely different from a later hand-recount because of the way the town folded absentee ballots before they were delivered to voters, an election audit has determined. The ballot folds caused election-day totals to mistakenly exclude some votes and count extra votes for a local Democratic candidate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The group conducting the audit, which was called for after Democratic state House candidate Kristi St. Laurent lost her race and a recount revealed discrepancies in the vote totals, <\/span><span>emphasized that \u201cno evidence of fraud or political bias\u201d was found.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c[A]uditors investigating the election in the town of Windham believe a folding machine used by the town to try to accommodate the numbers of absentee ballots in the November election is responsible for mistakenly adding to vote counts for candidates in four legislative seats,\u201d NBC Boston<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcboston.com\/news\/politics\/auditors-find-no-fraud-in-disputed-new-hampshire-election\/2392907\/\"> <span>reported<\/span><\/a><span>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That folding machine, auditors say, has normally been used to fold car registration documents, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmur.com\/article\/windham-vote-discrepencies-folding-machine-audit\/36523759#\">reports<\/a> WMUR.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe town used the machine to fold the absentee ballots before sending them to voters. After they were returned, the ballots were fed into a counting machine. <\/span><b>Because the folds on some ballots went through a Democrats name, the ballot was either not counted or a vote was wrongly given to the Democrat<\/b><span>,\u201d the NBC report added (emphasis added).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>None of the race outcomes were changed due to the recount, as the same candidates were victorious in the election day count and in the November hand recount. After that November recount, four Republicans gained between 297 and 303 votes each, while three Democrats gained between 18 and 28 votes each, <\/span><span>NHPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/post\/ag-asked-investigate-differing-vote-totals-contested-windham-race#stream\/0\">reported<\/a> last year. One Democrat, St. Laurent, lost 99 votes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIf a voter didn\u2019t fill in the bubble for their preferred candidate correctly, a machine might not interpret that as a valid vote \u2014 but a person looking at the same ballot would likely catch that mark and recognize the voter\u2019s intent,\u201d NHPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/post\/ballot-folds-not-fraud-likely-culprit-center-windham-election-audit-now-what#stream\/0\">reports<\/a>. \u201c<\/span>And if a voter appeared to fill in too many bubbles \u2014 or, if the machine thought a voter filled in too many bubbles, because one of the bubbles had a fold line through it \u2014 it could also throw off the machine count.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The recount did not reveal discrepancies for other races, such as the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races. \u201c<span>While there was a little bit of variation, as is expected during any recount, those results didn\u2019t differ from the machine counts as widely as the results for the state representative race,\u201d reported NHPR.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Mark Lindeman, an auditor and co-director of Verified Voting, said the audit uncovered \u201cno evidence of fraud or political bias,\u201d and also said that he hadn\u2019t heard \u201ca credible hypothesis of how fraud could account for what we found.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lindeman added that they \u201chave no reason to think that it\u2019s a statewide or national issue, although it\u2019s certainly possible that it occurred in other localities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Gardner \u201csaid ballots are sent to towns and cities with score marks to facilitate folding and the state ensures those marks don\u2019t go through the ovals where votes are marked,\u201d NBC Boston reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThere\u2019s never been a ballot we sent out that was scored over an oval,\u201d Gardner said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhile it\u2019s unknown how many other communities might use a folding machines like the one Windham did, Gardner said he suspects that few, if any, do,\u201d the report added. \u201cWhile the number of absentee ballots skyrocketed due to the pandemic, they generally make up a small percentage of the votes and communities don\u2019t have a problem folding ballots by hand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A recount was first asked for by St. Laurent and the audit later gained support from both parties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>St. Laurent says she\u2019s \u201csatisfied with the audit and was counting on either the legislature or the secretary of state\u2019s office take action to ensure the problem doesn\u2019t happen again,\u201d NCB Boston noted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThey have been very thorough, very transparent and it\u2019s also clear that it\u2019s multiple factors that led to the results we had on election night\u201d the losing Democrat said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The auditors are expected to release a full report in July.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Election audits are also currently taking place in numerous counties throughout the nation, most notably in Maricopa Country, Arizona, and Fulton County, Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Last month, the AZ audit grabbed national attention when the Department of Justice intervened, sending a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-doj-attempts-to-stop-arizona-election-audit\"> <span>letter<\/span><\/a><span> to the president of the Arizona state Senate suggesting the recount is illegal. The audit, however, has continued on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-doj-attempts-to-stop-arizona-election-audit\">Biden DOJ Attempts To Stop Arizona Election\u00a0Audit<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><i>member<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Machine-tabulated 2020 election results in Windham, New Hampshire, were likely different from a later hand-recount because of the way the town folded absentee ballots before they were delivered to voters, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278841,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232996580.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NH Election Audit Shows Machine Error Gave Extra Votes To Local Democrat; Determines No \u2018Fraud,\u2019 \u2018Bias\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232996580.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NH Election Audit Shows Machine Error Gave Extra Votes To Local Democrat; Determines No \u2018Fraud,\u2019 \u2018Bias\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}