For Immediate Release -- Election Integrity Activists' Statement Regarding Candidate Albert Howard's NH Recount Appeal
Contacts: Sally Castleman (781) 454-8700
Vickie Karp (512) 775-3737 / Abbe Waldman DeLozier (512) 736-5802
April 10, 2008
Albert Howard, the Republican candidate on whose behalf we wrote the Petition for Appeal of the New Hampshire recount, yesterday severed his ties with the election integrity volunteers from EDA, the Coalition for Visible Ballots, and several other groups who have been offering assistance regarding the upcoming April 18th hearing with the Ballot Law Commission. He has indicated that he has secured his own attorneys and prefers to move forward withour our involvement or assistance. We take that to include all our support, data, evidence and witnesses.
Given Mr. Howard's recent YouTube video initiating a fund raising campaign for a million dollars "to start off with" for legal fees in his recount battle, claims he has made regarding the recount appeal process and potential outcomes, concerns about his methodologies and other aspects of his behavior, we have determined that severing all ties with him is in the best interests of our election integrity community as well.
We will therefore not be participating in the NH Ballot Law Commission hearing on April 18th, although we will have representatives there as witnesses to, and recorders of, the events and determinations of the Commission.
By New Hampshire law, only a candidate can ask for a recount or an appeal to the Ballot Law Commission (BLC), which is how Albert Howard came into the picture in the first place. While this establishes a situation where the candidate has a decisive role, the election integrity advocacy community also has a part to play, and it is in this capacity that so many activists have been engaged as citizen watchdogs throughout the recount and appeal process.
Along the way, we provided Albert Howard with information about election reform issues and procedures, but we have never been affiliated with his political campaign in any way, or Kucinich's, or anyone's else's. Our work has to do with process and we will continue in that vein in the interest of election integrity, completely independent of Howard or any other candidate.
We remain committed to repairing the breaches and breakdowns in procedures, processes, and laws that were witnessed and evidenced during our time in NH. We will pursue those alternative steps that seem the most promising to heal the process. We welcome everyone's support, comments, and input, and we will continue to report on our progress.
All the work we have done is not in vain. It will remain the foundation of our work as we move forward in our pursuit to regain citizen controls and observable, open, free, and fair elections.
Stay tuned.
Sally Castleman, Election Defense Alliance
Abbe Waldman Delozier, Coalition for Visible Ballots, Election Defense Alliance
Vickie Karp, Coalition for Visible Ballots
Nancy Tobi, Election Defense Alliance
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