Chapter One:
Per contact with Kucinich principals, it is Kucinich's intent to count 100% of the votes statewide.
The SoS of NH, with the insistence that the recount start today, is applying the roughly $27,000 to the areas which are of greatest interest to Kucinich. When the money (the $27M) is nearly exhausted, a request will be made by the SoS for the additional monies.
The money must come directly from Kucinich, or his campaign, and not from the public. Otherwise, it would be great fun to have everyone in NH (and the rest of the world) line up outside the SoS's office with cash in hand to pay towards the costs of defraying the expense. But, for Kucinich, it is only a matter of getting the rest of the money together to take care of the costs of this recount.
It is absolutely not fair to characterize this recount attempt as "ala Nader". It is simply a matter of the much ballyhooed "fair and honest officials" of the much ballyhooed "hand counting state" of New Hampshire that caused a situation where a partial payment was made, rather than payment for a full recount.
We've heard so much about New Hampshire's tradition of "citizen involvement", and about the sterling reputations of the officials at the SoS's office, and about all the other paragon virtues of the state, that the actions of SoS Gardner (and those who rush to his defense) are enough to make one gag. What hubris !!
Gardner's actions in this instance are a public eyesore and make ex-SoS of Ohio Ken Blackwell look like the Dalai Lama !!
The first primary in this nation has a great bearing on who will be elected President. If New Hampshire wants the distinction of being first, it should act first class as a lesson to the rest of the nation.
And for those who wish the rest of the nation to divert its eyes from New Hampshire, while NH acts so shamefully, and who want other Americans to BEG Presidential candidates not to pursue their Constitutional rights to a recount, and who claim a recount is of "no use" and "will make matters worse" because "Without a full investigation into NH decisions and practices, we will continue to have sham Diebold elections.", I would remind them that the NH disaster is of your own making.
An investigation into the decisions and practices of NH is something that New Hampshire ER activists should be attending to, not the other 49 states. Don't make the other 49 states beholden to your own failure to control Diebold in your own state.
And don't ask, or tell, the Presidential candidates to refrain from asking for recounts in tainted elections, just in order to take the heat off the miserable job being done by New Hampshire officials... or the NH ER activists that tout their own state as the be-all, end-all of state elections.
Clean up your own house first. You make sure there is a "full investigation into NH decisions and practices" in New Hampshire.
Then we will feel comfortable in listening to your advice.
Phil
Update:
As of 1:00 PM CST, the Republican recount has not yet started due to uncertainty about receipt of funds.
The Democratic Recount, however, is proceeding currently, but there is a huge MAYBE attached to this.
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