Members of an audit team in Windham, New Hampshire, are finding more discrepancies in the 2020 election results in the state and suspect folds in ballots could be to blame.
“Something we strongly suspect at this juncture, based on various evidence, is that in some cases, fold lines are being interpreted by the scanners as valid votes,” auditor Mark Lindeman said, according to a report by WMUR9 on Monday, after the first review of four AccuVote machines was completed over the weekend.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation on April 12 ordering an audit of the ballot-counting machines and memory cards used during the 2020 general election in Windham, as well as a hand tabulation of roughly 10,000 ballots for the state House, governor, and U.S. senator races. That was after a November hand recount established discrepancies between vote totals, in particular with four of the candidates in Rockingham District 7 gaining about 300 votes, while the top-finishing Democrat, Kristi St. Laurent, lost 99 votes.
TRUMP-CHAMPIONED WINDHAM 2020 ELECTION AUDIT BEGINS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
“Because if someone voted for all four Republican candidates and the ballot happened to have its fold line going through St. Laurent’s target, then that might be interpreted by the machines as an overvote, which would then subtract votes from each of those four Republican candidates,” said Philip Stark, another member of the three-person audit team. “Conversely, if there were not four votes already in that contest by the voter, a fold line through that target could have caused the machine to interpret it as a vote for St. Laurent.”
According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, the totals produced so far in the audit differ from those seen on election night returns and in the recount, more so in the state Legislature contest than in the races for governor and U.S. senator.
One particular case mentioned in the report was that of Republican Julius Soti, who was the fourth of four GOP winners for state representative seats. Election night returns showed Soti prevail over fifth-place St. Laurent by 24 votes. The hand recount in November, which was requested by St. Laurent, showed Soti’s margin of victory rise to 420, but the vote tabulator review completed over the weekend shrunk the margin to 377, or 4,706 votes to 4,329.
The audit will not change the results of the Rockingham District 7 contest, which, according to the legislation signed by Sununu, is because of the ruling of the ballot law commission on Nov. 25 upholding the recount of that race. And although the audit will not analyze votes from the presidential election, it has caught the attention of former President Donald Trump, along with the election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, and a lawsuit in Antrim County, Michigan.
“Congratulations to the great Patriots of Windham, New Hampshire for their incredible fight to seek out the truth on the massive Election Fraud which took place in New Hampshire and the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump said in a statement on May 6.
Sununu disputed the assertion that there was widespread fraud in his state. “A discrepancy of 300 votes out of over 800,000 cast does not constitute ‘massive election fraud,'” the governor said.
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The audit, which began last week and is being conducted with the help of volunteers, moved to a new ballot count by hand on Monday. The entire process must be complete by May 27.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the election law department of the New Hampshire Department of Justice for comment but did not immediately hear back.
