Book Keeping

Every single ballot that has been printed either by the SOS (Secretary of State)’s Office, or by the towns to provide additional ballots when they run out on election day, should be accounted for, including uncast, blank and spoiled ballots. The goal of this is to create a double entry book keeping system. The report sheets should be uniform. There should be a listing of the number of ballots received from the SOS, the number of additional ballots printed at the polling place, even if that number is zero, to produce a total number of ballots coming into the election. Then, the total number of Democrats, and Independents who chose a Democratic ballot should be listed and totaled. That number should equal the number of ballots cast, and that number should equal the total number of votes cast for the candidates, including write in votes and "scattered" votes. The number of uncast, blank and spoiled ballots should be listed, so that the number of votes cast plus unused blank and and spoiled ballots, the number of ballots coming into the election, and the number of voters voting are exactly the same number. All of this info should be on the "seals." The precincts should include copies of their worksheets with the material they send to the SOS.

Recruiting and Training Poll Workers

Recruiting poll workers is critical. It is my belief that the many human errors we observed were the result of a handful of over worked poll workers trying to get this job done. The clerks and moderators must do a better job of recruiting. We see no reason to overlook high school students who may be too young to vote, but not too young to help particularly after school or after the polls close. This would help engage them early in the voting process, and make them future voters. High School History teachers in particular could be encouraged to make this a "project" for students. The fact that there is pay for the work would be conducive to involvement, and at the end of the day, workers could be offered pizza and soft drinks as further incentives to young people. Fliers could be posted around town, ads taken in local papers and so on.

Training is also critical. It should be both mandatory and fun. A few key people could be trained by the Secretary of State, and they could then return to their communities to train additional poll workers. A few things we observed that were the direct result of lack of effective training were: blank absentee ballots not being used prior to clerks printing additional ballots if they ran out; absentee ballots used as regular ballots with no notation on the ballot; handing an independent voter a party ballot and marking only that that person voted, not in which party. Poll workers should be trained to tabulate ballots without using hash marks, to avoid tally marks being misconstrued as numerals (eg, 111 could be three or one hundred eleven).

Seals

There was much alarm about the seals not being something that actually secured the boxes. Perhaps metal boxes with padlocks could be obtained for each town and ward. We did observe that some ballots did arrive in padlocked metal boxes. The fact that some really ratty boxes with tattered tape hanging off from boxes being used and reused does not demonstrate a proper respect for the ballots. Voting integrity is what makes democracy work, and it behooves the state to do all it can to demonstrate a commitment to that. The seals need to state exactly what is in the box, and the boxes need to be secure. The seals should have better glue so they can not be lifted and replaced without showing damage, as the election integrity people so ably demonstrated can be done with the seals now in use.

Separating Democratic and Republican Ballots

This should be done at the polling place.We mentioned this to Mr. Anthony and he indicated that it would be a bad idea for the poll workers to be handling the ballots unnecessarily. The fact of the matter is that the poll workers handle many of the ballots, probably most of them in fact, because of the write ins. There is no reason they could not sort into two piles, the blue and the pink, and store them that way, possibly in separate boxes. We know that some towns and wards have separate ballot boxes for Democratic and Republican ballots. A part of me would like to see this happen everywhere, but we do not think it is a good idea because it removes one layer of the privacy of the vote. We found it bothersome that the Democrats were sorting Republican ballots out of the boxes for the later Republican recount. That could be avoided if each precinct did this prior to sealing the boxes. It would also speed up the recount process enormously.

Memory Cards

We would like to see return to hand counting all ballots which would make this point moot, but if that does not happen memory cards should be secured along with the ballots. We know this was a big issue with the election integrity people and we agree with them that this is a serious concern. Incidently when we were looking at the voter check lists in Rochester, we asked one of the women in the clerks office about the memory cards. She said she thought they had been "sent back." we said that we had understood that the SOS had asked the clerks to hang onto them for the recount. Another woman said they had done that. In Manchester, the first person we spoke with said they did not keep the checklists or a copy of what they had sent to the SOS on election night. Then the Clerk came and said yes they did have those things. These are examples of how misinformation crops up which then gets broadcast on the internet.

Event Logs From Precincts - Anomalies

During the recount, when an anomaly was noted, quite often the clerks had an explanation, which was discovered when the SOS called to report the anomaly. That info should be part of the reports from the precincts on election night. It is the only way the SOS would know of any repeating problems that should be addressed through training or whatever, especially if there was no recount.

Several anomalies of note, most detected by the recount:

Wilton - the recount number reported for Obama dropped by a large number of votes; this was a typo by the person entering the recount number on the SOS website and was later corrected.

Manchester Ward 5 - poll workers added votes cast for vice president if the candidate was a presidential candidate as votes for that presidential candidate; this was picked up on recount

Manchester Ward 7 - recount numbers came in low for all candidates. Clerk re-examined the ballot box and found that a number of ballots had been kicked into the 2nd compartment of the ballot box, when the first compartment became too full.

Nashua Ward 5 - same as Manchester Ward 5

Event logs should include all pertinent information related to any malfunction or need for reprogramming or replacement of the memory card in the opti-scanners machines, or other problems with the machines.

Educating the Voter

Voters need to know that the machines are not able to read creative votes - circling the candidate of choice, or placing a check mark in the ellipse for example, will result in votes not being counted by the machine. We also observed several ballots where it was obvious the voter had some difficulty placing the mark in the ellipse. Voters need to know they can receive assistance with the ballot, or get an absentee ballot to fill out with a trusted friend or family member. We also noted many ballots where voters changed their minds, crossing out one filled in ellipse, and filling in a second one, which again would be cast out by the machine as an over vote. Voters need to know that if they should spoil their ballot, they can get a new one. While voters can register on election day, they should be encouraged to do it before then if at all possible, in order to avoid long lines. And independent voters of which we have so many need to be reminded that when they vote in the Primary, taking either a Democratic or Republican ballot, they will need to re-register as Independents or the next time they come in to vote they will be given the Democratic or Republican ballot, depending on which they chose in the Primary. Again posting fliers, taking ads, or doing PSA’s on local stations could help smooth things out on election day in two ways. First it would reduce the arguments about the ballot in the first place in it would reduce the number of write in votes for candidates of the opposite party on the ballots. While we are hopeless romantics, it was sad to see all the write-ins for say McCain on Democratic ballots, which are recorded on recount, but not counted in either the original voting or the recount.

Vice Presidential Candidates

We believe having these candidates on the ballots is a waste of time and confusing to many voters. Even if everyone in the state voted for the same VP candidate it would have no authority. The Presidential candidates pick their running mates period. We believe the NH legislature should change whatever law makes this a part of our ballot, and remove it from the ballot. It is a presidential election and there is no need to have the VP choice on the ballot.

Hostility

Several of the counters hired by the state and observers brought in by a particular candidate were openly hostile that a recount had been requested. Ninety nine percent of the counters were truly the salt of the earth, giving this exceedingly monotonous and important job the respect it deserves. The same could be said for most of the observers. So we feel a debt of gratitude to those who understood that this is all part of the democratic process. To those others we think there needs to be a bit of a lecture that is part of the Rules of Procedures for Recounts, i.e. one of the tenants of Democracy is that every voter is equal, and that the rules for the recount apply equally to everyone, whether or not you are a member of the NH House.

Mayhem during recounts

The SOS needs to maintain decorum. The election integrity people should be asked to stay to the sidelines, not to hog the SOS’s time, which delays the recount, and to talk quietly. When we lodged a complaint about a particular candidate having too many people at the recount table when Nashua Ward 4 was being counted, no one from the SOS’s office was willing to enforce the Rules. We were told that only one one observer for each candidate would be allowed to remain in the room during the lunch break and this was not enforced. Why have the rules if you have no intention of enforcing them?

Changes in polling place procedures.

We mention this because we heard numerous complaints from around the atste about this.

Evidently the clerks got together with the AG’s office and decided to put serious constraints on candidate observers at the polling places. In some instances, no observers were allowed. In the past, candidates have placed observers with voter lists identifying voters that support their candidates. As those voters come in, and the poll workers call out the names, the observers also note that those individuals have voted. Then several times during the day the observers will use this info to follow up with supporters who have not yet voted. It is a traditional part of GOTV. We believe that if the clerks are going to make those kinds of changes in procedure, they need to notify all the campaigns in a timely fashion, not just eject observers on election day, as happened around the state.