Election integrity in peril, Part 2

We recently reported briefly on the disparity in the results between ballots counted by Diebold machines and those counted by hand in the New Hampshire presidential primary, and the fact that candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) officially requested a recount "in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery."

The folks over at The Brad Blog have been following the story closely, and there are a few updates. First of all, the partial recount requested by Kucinich was suspended last week after the money ran out -- just two days before Kucininch withdrew from the presidential race. But in a letter sent to the N.H. Secretary of State on Jan. 22, Kucininch requested a complete recount due to concerns about the physical chain of custody of the ballots prior to the recount, and because of "significant percentage variances in four voting districts in Hillsborough County" -- including one where the variance between the original machine count and the hand re-count was 10.6 percent. That's not enough to change the ultimate outcome of the election, but it certainly does raise questions as to why the machines are not counting the votes accurately.

For complete coverage of the ongoing saga -- which, interestingly enough, includes another N.H. recount underway at the request of one Albert Howard, a Republican presidential candidate who claims an angel appeared to him in 1992 to report that he and Hillary Clinton would run against each other and she would lose -- click here.