Letter to the Editor, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nov. 5, 2015
I’ve tried since 2008 to convince Jaffrey officials to do a check on the computer to make sure our right to an honest election is protected. In my conversations with more than 200 citizens, that’s what most people have said they wanted. But it hasn’t happened Recent conversations with the Jaffrey Select Board make it clear it won’t happen.
A state advisory group in 2009 said that these random checks are essential and, if towns are unwilling to do them, the alternative is hand counting. By ignoring that advice, Jaffrey Selectmen have chosen to return to hand counting and will force the rest of us to work to make that happen. According to state law, the choice of counting method is the select board’s, not Town Meeting.
In Jaffrey 2014 Town Meeting, 77 voters voluntarily gave up their right to an honest vote count; 24 said they wanted our right protected.
What do MOST Jaffrey voters want?
Read the “Jaffrey Select Board Oct. 12 and 26, 2015” posting (#8) on Jaffrey Voices Google Group,” including the chronology of what has happened since 2010, ask questions and make sure you are fully informed before voting.
Your choices are:
1) give up your right to an honest vote count as 77 Jaffrey voters have
2) protect our right to an honest vote count as 24 voters want
3) allow certain individuals to choose if Jaffrey has honest vote counts in each election as 77 voters have .
Circle your vote, sign this letter and mail it to me at 474A Great Rd., Jaffrey, NH 03452. If you’re willing to help with community outreach, please include contact information. We particularly need gun rights advocates, veterans, Libertarians, young voters who understand computer vulnerabilities and members of minority groups who know how to advocate for their rights.
Deborah Sumner
474A Great Rd.
Jaffrey, NH 03452
The answer to the following two questions asked Jaffrey Select Board Oct. 12 was no.
1) Will you develop this policy/guidelines for future Town Meetings?
Legal Standard of truthfulness I ask you to adopt as policy/guidelines re: info given to Town Meeting (my experience has been with warrant articles 2012-2014 re: voting rights) and correcting known misinformation given by others.
It is the duty of one who volunteers information to another not having equal knowledge, with the intention that he will act upon it, to exercise reasonable care to verify the truth of his statements before making them…..One who makes a representation that is true when made has a duty to correct representations which are discovered to be false or erroneous prior to the time the transaction has been consummated.
NH Practice, Vol 8 p. 157-158
2) Will you enforce the spirit and intent of our election laws that protect rights of voters and candidates in Jaffrey (even though the Secretary of State and Attorney General have chosen not to enforce them statewide)? (copies of current election laws available through Town Office or upon request, but here are three. The first two election laws governing hand count and computer count towns are the same. The third is an additional legal duty required for election officials,including select men, in towns using the computer.)
RSA 659:60 Duties of Moderator. – The moderator, or the moderator pro tempore if the moderator is disqualified under RSA 658:24, shall oversee the counting of votes by other election officers, including the selectmen and the town clerk, and may discharge any other duties relating to the counting of votes.
RSA 659:63 Counting to be Public. – The counting of votes shall be public and conducted within the guardrail and shall not be adjourned nor postponed until it shall have been completed. No ballot shall be placed within 4 feet of the guardrail during the counting of votes.
RSA 659:42 Tampering With Electronic Ballot Counting Devices. – Whoever shall tamper with or injure or attempt to injure any electronic ballot counting device for the counting of ballots to be used or being used in an election or whoever shall prevent or attempt to prevent the correct operation of such device or whoever shall tamper with software used in the counting of ballots or design such software so as to cause incorrect tabulation of the ballots or any unauthorized person who shall make or have in his or her possession a key to an electronic ballot counting device to be used or being used in an election shall be guilty of a class B felony if a natural person or guilty of a felony if any other person.
The attached chronology was shared with the Select Board and Town Manager on Oct. 5. The facts show that election fraud PROBABLY occurred in Jaffrey in the November 2010 election (and possibly other computer count locations as well). There is nothing currently in place to prevent that from reoccuring in any or all of the 2016 Jaffrey elections (or many other locations using the computer).
