Lots of N.H. Republicans seeing red over Windham ballot findings

The red arrow points to a faint score mark through a candidate's oval where the mail-in ballot was folded. (Courtesy image NH DOJ)

WINDHAM - The Windham ballot audit that has roiled this suburban Rockingham County town and fed fuel to possible voting shenanigans here and nationwide winds up today, but the state's Elections Law Chair says don't expect anything from him until the auditors who conducted the probe submit their official report in July.

District 6 state Sen. Jim Gray, R-Rochester, told The Rochester Voice on Wednesday that auditors have said they now believe it appears that because of the fold lines on absentee ballots, voting machines may have tabulated overvotes on a state rep race, causing the ballot to be tossed.

Auditors have said about 60 percent of ballots in the state rep race that were either manually or machine folded were misread by the machines.

On Nov. 3 four Republican and four Democrats were vying for four state rep seats.

Auditors suspect that when the ovals for the four GOP candidates were filled they caused an overvote due to the score mark that went through Democrat Kristi St. Laurent's oval, which caused it to be tabulated as a vote.

St. Laurent demanded a recount because she lost by just 24 votes.

But during a hand recount on Nov. 12, the four GOP candidates all picked up around 300 votes and St. Laurent lost 99.

The forensic ballot audit in Windham and another in Arizona are causing many to question the legitimacy of the Nov. 3 vote and whether machines should even be used during national elections.

State Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, who helped champion the Windham audit at the state level, told The Rochester Voice on Tuesday that while he has a high degree of confidence in the three-man audit team, "there are concerns about the process of calibrating the machines and the folding of mail-in ballots.

Gray said one remedy might be that town clerks hire more staff so they can ensure that the ballots are folded correctly and not on ovals where they might be misread and cause an overvote or tabulate a vote for that candidate when the voter had made no selection in that race.

"We have learned from this, and there will be changes to absentee ballots," Giuda thinks. "The cost is of no concern, this is important for our votes to count."

Giuda also senses "a move afoot" to outlaw machines. He noted that could be labor-intensive in urban areas that might get millions of mail-in ballots.

Countries like Canada, Great Britain, France and Germany all hand count their national ballots.

Meanwhile, Gray said it would take a court order or another bill signed by the governor to conduct any other town or city audits across the state.

The audit teams is expected to do some final testing today, the last day of the audit, Gray said.

"Then they have 45 days to compile their recommendations," Gray said.

"There won't be any further actions till we get their report."