Democrat Seeks New Hampshire Recount

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Even though he won less than two percent of the vote on Tuesday - and even though he doesn't think a recount will effect the outcome - Democrat Dennis Kucinich is asking New Hampshire election officials for a recount. The report states that the Congressman wants to be assured that "all the ballots in his party's contest were counted."

The candidate's website provides additional comment about the recount request:

I am not making this request in the expectation that a recount will significantly affect the number of votes that were cast on my behalf…It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery – not just in New Hampshire, but in every other state that conducts a primary electionEver since the 2000 election – and even before – the American people have been losing faith in the belief that their votes were actually counted. This recount isn’t about who won 39% of 36% or even 1%. It’s about establishing whether 100% of the voters had 100% of their votes counted exactly the way they cast them.

Kucinich is basing his demand for a recount in part on internet "rumors" regarding discrepancies between hand-counted votes and the votes run through election machines. According to the theory referenced by Kucinich, votes counted by hand favored Democrat Barack Obama over Hilary Clinton in opposition to the final results on Tuesday night. He also noted that the pre-primary polls were pointing to an outcome which much more resembled the hand-counted results than the final tally, which surprised political pundits and the campaigns alike.

David Scanlan, New Hampshire's Deputy Secretary of State, responded that he had "every confidence in the certified results, but inidcated that any candidate is entitled to a statewide recount. According to New Hampshire law, Kucinich will have to pay for the recount. Kucinich's campaign indicated the check was on its way.