On the ground in NH: Recount Update by Bev Harris + video (updated)

Updated: Jan. 28, 2008 added video

Dandelion Salad

by Bev Harris
http://www.opednews.com
January 18, 2008 at 08:46:33

Writing this last night, I was quite tired. I will post photos – the slits are not “through the box” in the sense that they are in the middle of the cardboard. They deliver the ballots in a variety of cardboard boxes. The lid of the cardboard box is taped and has various seals on it, some old, from using the box before, some new. The slits cut through any tape or seals. They don’t cut into the cardboard itself, and I’m going to edit the post above to clarify that.

The other thing that isn’t clear from the above post is the timing.

1. We noticed the slits in the vault and confirmed when they brought the ballots out that the slits were still there.

2. Then we looked at the ballot boxes as they were being delivered. Those, too, had slits.

3. Then we visited towns that had ballots scheduled for pickup. We had time to visit only two towns. Both towns had ballot boxes with no slits.

4. While at these towns, we waited for the pickup van to show up. When it did, we videotaped the ballot boxes already in it.

5. When we got back to the archive building where they were having the recount, we awaited the van with the ballot boxes we just videotaped. We waited quite a while. Almost everyone left, the recount ended for the day, and still no van. The van finally pulled in after all but a couple observers had gone home. We videotaped what came out of the van. It was in the same condition as what we videotaped at the towns. Of course, Butch and Hoppy knew we had been taking videotape because we did it right in front of them.

6. The normal procedure has been:
– bring the incoming ballot boxes into the front door of the building
– roll them through the counting room, which is a large room similar to a library reference room
– from there to roll the cart containing the incoming ballot boxes through the back door of the counting room
– insert key card into the warehouse area door
– roll the ballots down the hall in the warehouse
– open the ballot “vault” door with a key (it is a sturdy metal door but opens with a single key)
– put the incoming ballots in the vault
– When they will be counted, take them from the vault back into the counting room.

What they did last night, with the incoming batch that we had photographed in the field, was roll them into the counting room. We waited. The handful of officials waited. These officials included Secretary of State Bill Gardner, Head of the Archive building Frank Mevers, Assistant secretary of state David Scanlan, Ballot transport drivers “Butch and Hoppy” (whose names are really Armand and Peter); Kucinich representatives Manny and Pat, a secretary of state assistant named, I think, Karen Hand.

They waited. We waited. It was very odd, to me at least. The ballots were sitting in the middle of the counting room, all these officials were standing around talking quietly with each other. I assumed they were waiting for something, results sheets perhaps. I decided to stay with video ready until the ballots were wheeled back to the vault.

One of the transport guys, “Hoppy” I think, then said that the ballots would not be taken to the vault that night because it was “closed” — implying that whoever had the key was no longer there. Frank Mevers had the key. But I saw Frank Mevers. And the ballots had been moved to the vault even later the night before, because counting teams had stayed and counted up until about 7 pm.

continued…

***

Updated

Who’s Responsible? New Hampshire Chain of Custody Sham

BlackBoxVoting

“Call security on this woman” – questioning is “over” – this is a cleaner, subtitled version of a previously posted video, with additional footage of NH officials being questioned about the seals, and identifiers on some of the ballot boxes.

Added: January 28, 2008

see

1-17-08: Ballot boxes found slit; NH

Hacking Democracy (must see videos; 2006)

Bill Moyers Journal: Behind the NH Headlines (links)

Alarms Should Go Off Whenever the Discrepancies Between the “Official” Results and the Polls Can’t Be Explained by andi novick (2006)

Silvestro the cat & the NH election (video; voter fraud) + Polls Wildly Different Than Results

Recount – Is Dennis Kucinich walking into a trap? by Bev Harris

Alex Jones Interview: Dennis Kucinich demands recount (videos of audio)