CONCORD, N.H.—A re-count of about 40 percent of the ballots in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary closely tracks the results reported on election night.
The Secretary of State's office finished the partial re-count Wednesday and posted the results on its Web site, www.http://www.sos.nh.gov/.
"None of the results, as far as where the candidates finished, changed," Assistant Secretary of State David Scanlan said. "There were minimal changes in the different voting precincts. Where there were differences beyond one or two votes, we were able to explain them" as human error.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich sought the re-count based on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton mostly beating Sen. Barack Obama where votes were counted by machine, but mostly losing to him where votes were counted by hand in the Jan. 8 primary.
Experts said the difference in voting patterns between machine- and hand-counted precincts dates from at least the 2000 Democratic primary, and stems from demographic patterns rather than fraud.
Scanlan said the state stopped the recount after using up the $27,000 Kucinich paid toward a statewide recount.
Clinton won the primary with 39 percent to Obama's 37 percent. Kucinich had around 1 percent and said he didn't expect his standing to improve, but believed sufficient questions had been raised to warrant a statewide recount.
He believes the state should finish the re-count at its own expense, spokesman Andy Juniewicz said. The secretary of state's office had closed for the day and could not comment.
Votes were re-counted in 68 of the state's 301 precincts, 23 percent. They accounted for a disproportionate share of the vote because they comprised all of one populous county, Hillsborough, and most of another, Rockingham.
In the re-counted precincts, Clinton dropped 25 votes, 0.05 percent, to 48,940; Obama also dropped, by 7 votes, or 0.02 percent, to 38,408.
Manchester's Ward 5 had the biggest changes affecting the two leaders, but both candidates lost votes, so the changes were a wash. The second biggest percentage swing involving Clinton or Obama was in Nashua's Ward 5, where Clinton lost 71 votes, or 7 percent, while Obama gained 5 votes.
In both precincts, Scanlan said election night totals were faulty because of human error counting ballots where votes had been cast for vice president as well as president.
