Anyone seen this?
Source:
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65777,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4So Far, Recount Shows No Problem
By Kim Zetter | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
11:21 AM Nov. 19, 2004 PT
The New Hampshire vote recount requested by independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is still in progress, but preliminary results show no significant changes in the numbers.
Nader requested a recount of a small number of wards, or voting precincts, after Michigan programmer Ida Briggs produced statistical analysis showing that President George Bush received many more votes in some wards than expected. Most of the wards used optical-scan machines made by Diebold Election Systems, which came under scrutiny this year after computer scientists discovered flaws in the company's touch-screen machines.
The optical-scan machines, unlike touch-screen machines, use paper ballots that officials scan into an electronic infrared reader, so officials were able to recount the ballots to verify the digital tallies.
The recount of five wards, or voting precincts, went slower than expected. As a result, officials finished counting only two wards and half of two others by the end of Thursday. Counting will resume next week, but officials expect the outcome will match original vote tallies.
Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said the recount showed that having a paper trail is critical to help dispel worries about voting machines
"Being able to go to the paper record and reach conclusions that, generally, everyone agrees on is so important to put fears to rest," Zeese said. "The second thing New Hampshire shows is that you have to make recounts easy, rather than put up barriers like in Florida, so you have an open and transparent process that reassures people."
Zeese said that ruling out voting machines as the problem in New Hampshire's results means "the problem was probably the Democrats."
"If we rule out the scapegoat of the machines, it just means more soul-searching on the part of the Democrats to figure out why they lost to the worst president in history," Zeese said. "You cannot assume that inconsistencies between exit polls and trends in voting or registration are going to turn out to show machine fraud. The Democrats really can be (just) as bad as they look."