NH PRIMARY DISINFO ALERT: 'Problems' with Paper Ballots in State Inaccurately Reported by National

[kster]

Mainstream Media!



BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 1/8/2008

Reports of 'Voter Fraud' in Dixville Notch, Dem Ballots Unavailable to Voters, Both Debunked by The BRAD BLOG
Though Reasons Remain for Concern About Tabulation on Diebold Machines...

Our Spidey-sense started tingling before going to bed last night and hearing reports, on MSNBC, that there were 17 paper ballots cast in Dixville Notch, NH's midnight, first-in-the-country voting. The report said that there were only 16 registered voters in the tiny voting precinct, yet 17 votes had been cast --- suggesting that somehow, paper ballot "voter fraud" skullduggery was afoot.

Following on that, reports throughout the day appeared that NH precincts were out of paper ballots, and voters were unable to vote.

Trouble is, both reports are either completely untrue, or wholly misleading, or both, as The BRAD BLOG was able to confirm with two simple phone calls.

Each of those reports, however, would seem to go a long way towards giving the impression that paper ballots are a bad idea, and that "voter fraud" is easy to commit when using them. Given that one of those reports seems to have begun on The DRUDGE REPORT earlier today, we're not particularly surprised that the MSM kept repeating the easily-debunked stories running all day.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5529

[rumpel]

1. thank you Brad,

as usual.

r

[Stevepol]

2. I don't trust NH vote counting. Where's the verification?

Two simple questions: Is there paper for all the votes? Is there an audit?

I was surprised that Clinton won this primary based on the polls I was reading. Was there any exit polling?

My suspicions may be unfounded, but I think the vendors of the voting machine theft machines would be much happier with HRC as the candidate than either Obama or Edwards. And it's my impression that in NH the relationship between the vendors and the election people is a lot cozier.

Plus, NH has exhibited some strange discrepancies in the past between the exit polls and the alleged results.

Just my $.02

[OnTheOtherHand]

3. yes; no; yes

Paper statewide, hand-counted or optically scanned, but no routine audit.

The first exit poll "composite" posted showed Obama with a narrow lead. Since the composite combines exit poll data with pre-election expectations -- and the pre-election expectations were strong Obama -- that seems consistent with the official result. But one could speculate forever. Remember that in 2004, NH had a big exit poll discrepancy, and a recount of over 50,000 ballots supported the original count.

Impression away. Audits would be better.