Request for FBI Investigation: Reported Derry Nov.2020 Election Results
dsumneri...@gmail.com
Note: Posted Sept. 22, 2022 by Deborah Sumner after confirming with the Bedford FBI it is okay to make this information public. Since the ballot retention period ended in early September it is likely there was no investigation and those ballots have now been destroyed.The FBI will neither deny nor confirm that information.
We often hear NH officials say and the media report there is "no evidence" of any widespread problem in our election system. But here is evidence that shows when asked to investigate (and perhaps find a reasonable explanation for the anomaly), local, state AND federal government officials chose NOT TO LOOK.
June 29, 2022
To the Bedford FBI,
I have tried to get help from legislators, Derry officials, the USDOJ, US Attorney for NH and the NH Attorney General (since Dec. 2020). The only responses were from the USDOJ who said the issue is “under review” and the US Attorney suggested I contact the FBI.
Federal law requires that ballots be retained 22 months, until early September 2022 for Nov. 2020 ballots. Please conduct inspection of the Nov. 2020 Derry ballots to make sure the known fraud possibilities did NOT occur and that legal votes were counted as voter intent demonstrates. Derry Town Clerk Daniel Healey is the current custodian.
Derry Town Council members, town administrator and the town moderator have been made aware of this concern and I believe will cooperate with any investigation.
I have also let them know of my concerns in how ****** has dealt with this issue.
https://www.derrynh.org/town-council
I am enclosing my Oct. 8, 2021 request to the US Attorney, my Feb. 7, 2022 request of NH AG Formella and my June 20, 2022 communication with Assistant NH AG Myles Matteson with two names redacted.
These two individuals and ********* have continued to act in ways that show there WAS a conspiracy to defraud more than 800 Derry voters of their votes in Nov. 2020 (and if it occurred there, was likely to have happened in other communities).
Windham and Merrimack were among other towns with a high number of over voted ballots on some computers in November 2020.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Best time to reach me is 9-12 noon on week days.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Deborah Sumner (contact info removed)
Jaffrey, NH 03452
encl. Oct. 8, 2021 US Attorney for NH (and Dec. 2, 2021 NH AG MacDonald)
Feb, 7, 2022 NH AG Formella
June 20, 2022 Assistant AG Matteson
_________________________________________
Oct. 8, 2021
John Farley, U.S Attorney for NH
Federal Building
53 Pleasant St., 4th Floor
Concord, NH 03301
Dear Mr. Farley,
I hope you can help with this. I’m enclosing the Dec. 2, 2020 request for the NH Attorney General to investigate the high overvoted ballot rate in Derry for the Nov. 2020 election, especially with absentee ballots. I know there are at least four possibilities for overvoted ballot fraud with the AccuVote system NH uses (listed below) and there are other known reasons for computers misreading legal votes and disenfranchising voters. Legal precedent says clearly that voting (and having that vote count) is a fundamental, Constitutional right.
"The right to have one's vote counted is as open to protection by Congress as the right to put a ballot in a box." United States v. Mosley, 238 U.S. 383, 386 “[e]very voter's vote is entitled to be counted once. It must be correctly counted and reported.” Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 380 (U.S. 1963).
I am deeply troubled that so many people in positions of trust in NH don’t take this concern about lost (and possibly stolen) votes seriously. There was no response from the NH AG or those I asked to request you investigate—the Ballot Law Commission (June 26, 2021); legislative leaders and legislators on the House and Senate election law committees (Sept. 7, 2021); Executive Committee of the NH City and Town Clerks Association (Sept. 22, 2021).
Four KNOWN possibilities for fraud with the AccuVote Optical Scan:
A. An attack could bypass the pre-election ballot testing and, during an election: turn off under-and-over vote notification. It could selectively disable over vote notification or selectively provide false over vote notification for favored or disfavored candidates. VSTAAB, 2006 http://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/bishop/notes/2006-inter/2006-inter.ps
B. Someone with access to ballots could add a tiny spot of invisible/ultraviolet ink to the oval for the PREFERRED candidate. The voter wouldn’t notice it. If he/she voted for ANOTHER candidate, the scanner would read it as an over vote and be it would be invalidated. A vote for the PREFERRED candidate would likely be counted as valid.
C. Prior to recounts, over vote marks could be added to ballots (also possible in locations not using the AccuVote).
D. Voters might mark malicious patterns on the ballot that could trigger a dormant Trojan horse and cause a compromised computer to start cheating. (p. 71, Source Code Review of the Diebold Voting System)
I hope you care about what appears to be significant voter disenfranchisement and will investigate WHY so many people in Derry (and likely elsewhere in NH) lost their votes in the Nov. 2020 election. IF the public knows why, we can work to prevent it from continuing to happen.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Deborah Sumner (contact info removed)
Jaffrey, NH
Barbara Glassman
Nashua, NH
Tod Davis
Nashua, NH
encl. Dec. 2, 2020 communication
Derry overvote information (see attached file)
___________________________________________
December 2, 2020 (sent by regular mail, emailed Dec. 3)
Subject: Request for Investigation, high overvoted ballot rate [and possible violation of RSA 659:64] in Derry/absentee ballots statewide
To: Gordon.M...@doj.nh.gov Cc: "Edwards, Anne" <Anne.E...@doj.nh.gov>, Jane....@doj.nh.gov, "ChongYen, Nicholas" <Nicholas...@doj.nh.gov>, barbara Glassman , Gerhard Bedding <
Gordon J. MacDonald, Attorney General
NH Department of Justice
33 Capitol St.
Concord, NH 03301
Dear Mr. MacDonald,
1) We ask you to use your authority under RSA 656:42 IV to investigate an alarmingly high overvoted ballot rate in Derry for the November 2020 election. Derry reported a total of 6,428 absentee ballots of 18,100 ballots cast. Some would be overseas ballots and others tallied by hand.
Enclosed is information from the eight computers used. Computer one tabulated ONLY absentee ballots (572 over voted ballots, 14.2%); other absentee ballots were counted by other computers, with a 4.7% overvoted ballot rate when totals are combined (848 ballots). Computer 5 also showed a high overvoted ballot rate, 5.8%.
You should be able to confirm the numbers with the town clerk.
In November 2018, Derry mostly tallied its absentee ballots on one computer, with an estimated 5% overvoted ballot rate for that computer.
2) Are absentee ballots statewide showing a significantly higher voter disenfranchisement rate than election-day ballots?
3) If so, why? What are your recommendations for decreasing these numbers?
As we told you in September 2017, folds in absentee ballots may be misread as overvotes, there are many instances of computers misreading valid votes as overvotes and there are fraud possibilities. One can be targeted to absentee ballots where the voter’s party affiliation is known.
Since then, we have been doing some checks of overvoted ballots in various towns, but prior to this discovery, the highest was 2.5% in Jaffrey in the Nov. 2012 election.
NH doesn’t require reporting of overvotes and neither law nor the SoS requires local officials to print that information for the general election. (Only 2 of Nashua’s 9 wards had the requested overvote information available, 143 overvoted ballots of 10,702, 1.3%). It is impossible to know why or how many NH voters are being disenfranchised compared with other states or if certain races are impacted more.
Both Vermont and Massachusetts program their computers to notify election-day voters of a computer-read overvote or completely blank ballot so they can choose to request a replacement ballot and have their votes counted. NH doesn’t.
VT reports overvotes for each contest and each locality, as you can see here.
https://sos.vermont.gov/media/heqnbco5/generalofficialresults.pdf
Overvote rate for President on election night was 278 of 370,968 ballots cast, .075%.
MA has recently completed its 3% post-election audit and found a total of 7 overvotes for all races counted on election night (100,349 ballots/over vote rate of .007%). Additional overvotes found in the audit (68 total for ALL races) were mostly attributed to 73 ballots not counted on election night.
https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepostelection/postelectionidx.htm
https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepostelection/2020-Audit-Report-Narrative.pdf
In NH, we are finding overvoted ballot rates almost always exceed 1%. Ballots may contain more than one error, thus disenfranchising voters for more than a single contest.
All three states had more absentee ballots this past election, but we see significant overvote voter disenfranchisement only in NH.
We ask that any review of Derry ballots be a transparent, public process and that your findings include recommendations to policy makers, election officials and or the Ballot Law Commission, which makes rules for the use of computers in NH. RSA 659:64 requires that NH enfranchises as many voters as possible. Appeal of McDonough, 149 N.H.105, 112 (2003).
Thank you. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Deborah Sumner Barbara Glassman Gerhard Bedding(contact info removed)
Jaffrey, NH Nashua, NH Keene, NH 4
Copies: Derry Town Moderator, Ballot Law Commission, ACLU-NH, DOJ attorneys-Anne Edwards, Jane Young, Nicholas Chong Yen
(See attached file re: Derry Nov. 2020 election results.)
______________________________________
From: Deborah Sumner
Subject: Re: Request for Investigation, high overvoted ballot rate in Derry/absentee ballots statewide
Date: February 7, 2022 at 11:35:59 AM EST
Cc: electionlaw <elect...@doj.nh.gov>, Jane....@doj.nh.gov, "Edwards, Anne" <Anne.E...@doj.nh.gov>, "ChongYen, Nicholas" <Nicholas...@doj.nh.gov>, "Matteson, Myles" <Myles.B....@doj.nh.gov>, "Tracy, Richard" <Richar...@doj.nh.gov>, David Scanlan <David....@SOS.NH.GOV>, Orville Fitch <Orvill...@sos.nh.gov>, usanh....@usdoj.gov,
Dear Mr. Formella,
Since this Dec. 2, 2020 request of Mr. MacDonald remains open, I ask you to initiate the investigation of Derry November 2020 ballots to see if all legal votes were counted (as law and duty require) and to ensure that three of the four known possibilities for election fraud with overvoted ballots did not occur. (See end for specifics, A, B and D.)
"No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 (U.S, 1 1964)
“The right to have one's vote counted is as open to protection by Congress as the right to put a ballot in a box." United States v. Mosley, 238 U.S. 383, 386 “[e]very voter's vote is entitled to be counted once. It must be correctly counted and reported.” Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 380 (U.S. 1963)
As you and Mr. Gardner noted in your Jan. 7, 2022 communication to Windham officials, “The moderator has a duty to accurately count all legally submitted ballots.” p. 3
My understanding is that 1) you can ask the FBI or county attorney to help investigate 2) Derry did NOT use a folding machine (found to contribute to the high overvote rate in Windham’s Nov. 2020 election).
Three citizens notified Mr. MacDonald in Sept. 2017 about known instances of the AccuVote misreading legal votes as overvotes (including fraud possibilities). He took no action. (Request should be in your files, sent Sept 9 by regular mail, Sept. 11 by email.)
I am copying Mr. Scanlan and Mr. Fitch, who I believe will support this request and would help your office with this investigation any way they can.
Please confirm that you will initiate this investigation and finalize it before Sept. 2022 (the end of the ballot retention period). The Derry Town Clerk is current ballot custodian.
Thank you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Respectfully,
Deborah Sumner (Contact info removed)
Jaffrey, NH
copies: AG attorneys, David Scanlan, Bud Fitch, US Attorney for NH, Attorney Paul Twomey
PS As the Secretary of State knows and you should know, the pre-election testing only shows the computer is working properly when it’s tested. It can be programmed to operate differently during the election, there can be a software glitch or mechanical issue. For example, CT found the memory card battery lost power and affected the post-election hand counted audit results. Officials there pushed the vendor to design a new memory card. NH continues to use the one known to have the battery depletion problem.
Four KNOWN possibilities for fraud with overvotes using the AccuVote Optical Scan:
A. An attack could bypass the pre-election ballot testing and, during an election: turn off under-and-over vote notification. It could selectively disable over vote notification or selectively provide false over vote notification for favored or disfavored candidates. VSTAAB, 2006 http://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/bishop/notes/2006-inter/2006-inter.ps
B. Someone with access to ballots could add a tiny spot of invisible/ultraviolet ink to the oval for the PREFERRED candidate. The voter wouldn’t notice it. If he/she voted for ANOTHER candidate, the scanner would read it as an over vote and be it would be invalidated. A vote for the PREFERRED candidate would likely be counted as valid.
C. Prior to recounts, over vote marks could be added to ballots (also possible in locations not using the AccuVote).
D. Voters might mark malicious patterns on the ballot that could trigger a dormant Trojan horse and cause a compromised computer to start cheating. (p. 71, Source Code Review of the Diebold Voting System)
______________________________________
On Dec 22, 2021, at 9:47 AM, Deborah Sumner wrote: elect...@doj.nh.gov
As of this date, I have not received a status report, closure letter or any other communication re: this reported violation of law (RSA 659:64) and /requested investigation. If the AG’s office won’t take any action on this, please confirm that decision and give the reason why.
Thank you
Deborah Sumner
Begin forwarded message:(See
From: Deborah Sumner
Subject: Request for Investigation, high overvoted ballot rate in Derry/absentee ballots statewide
See December 2/3, 2020 letter above to Gordon MacDonald et al
___________________________________
June 20, 2022 (sent by email and regular mail)
Dear Myles [Matteson].,
John Formella, Barbara Griffin and you were given a choice. Honor your oaths of office (RSA 92:2) and duty to the NH Constitution or resign from office.
I asked Mr. Formella and Rep. Griffin to resign on May 28, I am asking you to do so today.
The NH AG should know the difference between a handcount to confirm the accuracy of the computer and guard against potential tampering, as other moderators have done, and a “recount,” clearly defined by state law. The Secretary of State and Bud Fitch DEFINITELY knew and know the difference.
“Our New Hampshire Constitution was created by the people, who are sovereign, and it, being an expression of their will, is the fundamental and supreme law of the State. No branch of State government can lawfully perform any act which violates the State Constitution.” State v. LaFrance (1983) 124 N.H. 175
The Jan. 7, 2022 “finding of the attorney general” (RSA 659:77,iii) re: Windham, written by former Deputy AG and current Assistant SOS Bud Fitch and signed by Mr. Formella, said “The moderator has a duty to accurately count all legally submitted ballots.”
The constitutional duty of the moderator is clear in current law yet Attorneys General and their election law assistants from 2016 through today have refused to acknowledge or correct their obvious, egregious and extremely harmful “mistake.”
You have all chosen instead to continue the pattern and practice of protecting and enabling individuals in the Secretary of State’s office and their legislative allies to abuse their positions of public trust, violate the constitution, laws consistent with it, and THEIR oaths of office. From my perspective, at a minimum you are all guilty of violating RSA 641:31 and RSA 666:3, both misdemeanors and requiring an independent investigation.
WHY didn’t Scanlan want the Derry moderator to conduct a verification count of the Nov. 2016 election? What were *********** and ******* roles? Is there evidence of a conspiracy? Based on my investigation, looks like there was. Prove me wrong.
Neither you nor Mr. Formella CAUSED this systemic failure. You inherited it.
Instead of you two taking a strong stand for the public and pushing for needed change, you have chosen to be part of the ongoing problem and serve as the SoS’s lawyer, not the people’s,
So far, there has been no accountability for the attorneys general and secretary of state’s actions since 2016 But, the house of cards may crash down upon you at any moment.
Please resign ASAP for the good of NH. For your own good, find a career path that doesn’t require you to be indifferent to truth, or protect and cover up for individuals who have chosen to abuse their positions of public trust, harm others and the public’s trust in individuals, our government and our elections.
NH deserves better.
Good luck. Sorry we couldn’t resolve this issue. It will remain a stain on the honor, reputation and credibility of the NH Attorney General.
Respectfully,
Deborah Sumner (contact info removed)