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The ONLY article as of yet in a major newspaper that mentions the NH recount was printed on Wednesday:
BYLINE: Jonathan Finer and Brian Faler
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who lost by about 335,000 votes in New Hampshire, has asked the state for a recount.
No, the longtime consumer advocate is not hoping to change last week's outcome in the Granite State, where Democrat John F. Kerry was the winner. Rather, he said, he is concerned about the veracity of the results.
"We have received reports of irregularities in the vote reported on the AccuVote Diebold Machines in comparison to exit polls and trends in voting in New Hampshire," Nader wrote Secretary of State William M. Gardner. "These irregularities favor President George W. Bush by 5% to 15% over what was expected."
New Hampshire uses Diebold machines at 132 polling places. Gardner's office received Nader's fax at 4:59 p.m. Friday, one minute before the deadline. Under state law, if a candidate requesting a recount finished more than three percentage points behind, he must pay for the process. Gardner said that if the Nader campaign sends a check for $2,000 and promises to pay any additional charges, he will round up the ballots and initiate a hand count.
Spokesman Kevin Zeese said Nader was planning to send the check yesterday. "Either it will allay people's fears about the results, or it will open the door to looking at other states," Zeese said.
There were also a few references to the issue on the wire services that day:
From UPI {excerpt}:
BYLINE: DONNA BORAK
The Nader campaign has already filed requests for vote recounts with the secretary of state offices in Ohio and New Hampshire before last Friday's deadline. The campaign selected "suspicious" precincts based on previous statistical analysis that showed an unusual number of votes in favor of the incumbent, said Zeese {a Nader campaign spokesperson}.
According to Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Orville "Bud" Fitch, Nader has only completed the first step of the recount request; he has yet to put a down payment of $2,000 and demonstrate a commitment to pay the actual cost of the recount for the entire state.
Nader has been given till 4:30 p.m. Friday to pay the initial $2,000 to cover recount costs. The campaign has $101,018 in cash on hand, but is in the hole owing $180,833 according to the Federal Election Commission. Fitch believes that Nader will come up with the $2,000 for the recount, which will be the first time in 20 years that the state has had a statewide recount.
"We won't know anything till Friday," the New Hampshire secretary of state's office said.
"Mr. Nader is not expecting the outcome (of the presidential election) to be overturned," said Fitch, who explained that Nader's primary interest was to reach out to voters in counties who felt votes had been inaccurately accounted.
So, at least if you can believe the Moonies, Nader has untill 4:30 TODAY to come up with the $2,000. If he does that, the recount happens.
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