Windham NH Town Hall

WINDHAM – Secretary of State Bill Gardner and Attorney General John Formella said in a joint statement Sunday that the audit of the controversial Windham state representative election will begin Tuesday.

The audit, known as the Senate Bill 43 Forensic Election Audit, came about after a recount in the race between Republican Julius Soti and Democrat Kristi St. Laurent for one of Windham’s four state representative seats showed that the Republicans in all four races received roughly 300 more votes than the totals that town’s AccuVote machines recorded on election night.

The audit will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Edward Cross Training Center, 722 Riverwood Drive in Pembroke.

Gardner and Formella said in the statement that SB 43 tasks Gardner with determining a method of selecting 20 people to observe the audit.

All 20 must be New Hampshire voters.

Ten of the 20 people will be chosen based on their “direct participation by voting in the presidential election, participating in the Windham recount as observers, and/or participating in the subsequent Ballot Law Commission appeal hearing.”

The other 10 appointees, Gardner and Formella said, “will be chosen daily by random drawing at 4 p.m.” each day, for attendance at the following day’s audit proceedings.

“Alternates will also be selected. Observers will be notified by 5 p.m. and provided with information regarding protocols related to the audit,” they added.

To apply for attendance, send an email to elections@sos.nh.gov and put “Windham Election Audit” in the subject line. The body of the email should include the applicant’s name, address, email, and phone number so the chosen members can be contacted.

This process will be repeated for each day the audit takes place.

Further information will be available Monday at www.sos.nh.gov.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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