Nader requests recount of NH Presidential ballot
By GARRY RAYNO
State House Bureau Chief New Hampshire Union Leader

06 November 2004

 CONCORD ? Presidential candidate Ralph Nader yesterday requested a recount of the Presidential election ballots in New Hampshire.

However, the Attorney General's Office is not treating it as a valid request because a check to pay for the recount did not accompany the request.

Both the request and the check have to be filed with the Secretary of State's Office by 5 p.m. yesterday by law.

Assistant Attorney General Orville "Bud" Fitch said "At this point, we don't consider this a valid request."

Nader writes "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. These irregularities favor President George W. Bush by 5 to 15 percent over what was expected. Problems in these electronic voting machines and optical scanners are being reported in machines in a variety of states."

Nader received 4,470 votes in New Hampshire, which is less than 1 percent of the total.

Three state Senate recount requests were filed with the Secretary of State by yesterday's deadline.

A request has been filed in the state Senate District 8 where Sen. Bob Odell, R-Lempster, received 16,324 votes, while Carroll "Dave" French, D-Langdon, received 10,045 votes. The request was filed by French.

Also in Senate District 12 race between David Gottesman, D-Nashua, and Harry Haytayan, R-Hollis. The final results show 188 votes separate the two candidates. Haytayan filed the request.

Also in Senate District 18, Dave Gelinas, D-Manchester, has requested a recount. He received 10,914 votes, while Sen. Andre Martel, R-Manchester, received 11,079, a difference of 165 votes.

Requests to recount 12 House races were also filed by the deadline.

They are Carroll District 1, which includes the towns of Bartlett, Chatham, Conway, Hale's Location, Hart's Location and Jackson; Cheshire District 2, which includes the towns of Alstead, Marlow, Nelson, Roxbury, Stoddard, Sullivan and Walpole; Cheshire District 4, which includes the towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester; Cheshire District 6, which includes the towns of Harrisville, Marlborough, Swanzey and Troy; Hillsborough District 2, which includes the towns of Bennington, Deering, Francestown and Greenfield;

Hillsborough District 3, which includes the towns of Greenville, New Ipswich, Peterborough and Sharon; Hillsborough District 20, which is Nashua Ward 1; Hillsborough District 27, which includes Hudson, Litchfield and Pelham; Merrimack District 5, which includes Bradford and Henniker; Strafford District 3, which includes Barrington, Farmington, Middleton, Milton, New Durham and Strafford; Sullivan District 2, which includes Groydon, Goshen, Newport, Springfield and Washington, and Sullivan District 4, which includes Claremont wards 1, 2 and 3, Lempster and Unity.

The recounts will begin next week.