Windham audit attributes gap to folded ballots

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July 13 The discrepancy in the races of Windham State officials last November was caused by wrinkles in the mail ballots that were misinterpreted by the ballot counting machines, not through partisan misconduct, the forensic audit team concluded.

In its 121-page report released on Tuesday, the three-person audit team sought to dispel suspicions about the 300 votes cast by the four Republican candidates after a manual recount of the November 3 ballots.

“We have found no basis to believe that the counting errors found in Windham indicate a pattern of partisan bias or a failed election,” wrote Harri Hursti, Mark Lindeman and Phillip Stark, the three auditors chosen by the state. and the city to conduct the review.

In the first count on the night of November 3, Republican Julius Soti won the fourth state representative seat by 24 votes against Democrat Kristi St. Laurent.

But Soti’s victory rose to 420 votes after a manual recount on November 12 requested by Saint-Laurent.

The four GOP candidates garnered around 300 votes each, while Saint-Laurent’s vote total dropped by around 100 after the manual recount.

Secretary of State Bill Gardner and Attorney General John Formella said they would review the report, but would have no public comment on it until they released their own findings and submitted them to the town of Windham.

Legislation mandating auditing (SB 43) gives government officials 45 days to prepare their own response to the auditors’ report.

Governor Chris Sununu said he was happy the audit did not reveal any significant voting irregularities.

“No surprises, and I think this continues to confirm that our system is healthy,” Sununu said.

The folder called into question

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three times as many New Hampshire voters voted by mail in November than ever before.

Faced with this unprecedented flood of absentees, election officials in Windham deployed a different folding machine to quickly send ballots to those who requested them.

The story continues

This machine produced an unusually large number of ballots with folds that, due to their location, were interpreted by the counting machines as votes for Saint-Laurent, according to the report.

This led to many ballots not being counted because the machine recorded them as “overotes”.

The same ballots were correctly counted when the ballot was reviewed by hand.

“Basically, the large discrepancy between the election night totals and the two-handed tally in the state officials contest in Windham can be attributed to unintended consequences and misfortune,” the report said.

“Election officials in a hurry borrowed a folder to mail out thousands of postal ballots faster, and the votes on about 400 ballots were miscounted as a result.”

There was no evidence that the folder had been adjusted to create this result, according to the report.

“The machine’s documentation doesn’t even describe how to adjust the location of the fold,” he added.

Listeners suggested that state officials consider no longer sending out folded postal ballots in the future.

This would make these mailings more expensive because the ballots would have to be placed in larger envelopes. It could also expose those larger envelopes to more damage once they are sent in the mail.

“Aside from counting errors, folded ballots are likely to be misfed, making it difficult to process ballots on election day,” the report said.

“Sending ballots flat, in larger envelopes, could be a worthwhile investment. We recognize plausible arguments against this approach. “

The audit found that there were no similar gaps between the number of machines in the presidential race or in the US Senate.

Former President Donald Trump said last month he was closely following Windham’s election audit.

After narrowly losing New Hampshire in 2016, Trump blamed it on “rampant electoral fraud” and claimed buses packed with voters came from Massachusetts to vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Gardner and Sununu said there was no evidence of voter fraud in this race.

Windham Selectman Bruce Breton, a prominent supporter of the Trump campaign, said he would consult with the New Hampshire Voter Integrity Group & Government Integrity Project when reviewing the report.

New Hampshire’s campaign for voting rights has praised the audit effort. They urged Gardner and Formella to recommend regular maintenance of the voting machines and that local officials notify voters after the election that they had cast a spoiled ballot due to excessive voting.

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