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Jan 16, 2008 5:30 pm US/Eastern
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N.H. Primary Democratic Re-Count Under Way
CONCORD, N.H. (WBZ) ―
Secretary of State William Gardner says his office is ready for Wednesday's re-count of New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary.
Democrat Dennis Kucinich has paid $27,000 to Gardner's office to start the re-count. Election officials tell WBZ-TV that the recount could take up to a month.
Kucinich, who received less than 2 percent of the vote, says he is suspicious of the results, although he doesn't expect a re-count to change his vote count much. Kucinich alluded to online reports alleging disparities around the state between hand-counted ballots, which tended to favor Sen. Barack Obama, and machine-counted ones that tended to favor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also noted the difference between pre-election polls, which indicated Obama would win, and Clinton's triumph by a 39 percent to 37 percent margin.
Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said Kucinich is entitled to a statewide recount. But, he had "every confidence" the results are accurate.
Kucinich has asked that the re-count start with Manchester ballots and spread out from there to other Hillsborough County precincts. He can stop the re-count and get a refund for the balance of the costs. To re-count the entire state would cost him about $70,000.
Republican Albert Howard, of Michigan, also has asked for a re-count but has not paid for it yet.
Gardner says he will get started with the Democratic re-count and if Howard comes up with the money later, he will consider the request then.
The re-count to began Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
