With the May 27 deadline fast approaching for the forensic audit to be completed in Windham, NH, the election integrity uproar in the close-knit small town is gaining intensity. Rather than building trust in Windham's constituents, the curious connection between the three auditors presently chosen to perform the critical audit task raises brand-new questions surrounding the transparency of the forensic audit and has caught the attention of President Donald Trump and his former campaign manager and Windham resident Corey Lewandowski. In a statement issued today on his new social media platform, Trump expressed his support for those fighting for truth and fairness in elections, saying:
"Congratulations to the great Patriots of Windham, New Hampshire for their incredible fight to seek out the truth on the massive Election Fraud which took place in New Hampshire and the 2020 Presidential Election. The spirit for transparency and justice is being displayed all over the Country by media outlets which do not represent Fake News. People are watching in droves as these Patriots work tirelessly to reveal the real facts of the most tainted and corrupt Election in American history. Congratulations Windham—look forward to seeing the results."
Senate Bill 43 (SB43), the legislation driving the forensic audit, directs that three auditors be selected—one person chosen by the town of Windham; one person designated jointly by the Secretary of State (SoS) and Attorney General (AG); and one person selected jointly by the designee of the town and the designee of the SoS and AG.
Auditor Designated by the Town of Windham
The Board of Selectmen is a small group of five elected officials, with Ross McLeod and Heath Partington as co-chairs. The other board members are Jennifer Simmons, Bruce Breton, and Roger Hohenberger. In a 3-1 vote (Bruce Breton voted against Lindeman and for Jovan Pulitzer, while Jennifer Simmons was out of town and did not vote), the board voted to select Mark Lindeman (through Andrew Appel) to perform the forensic audit.
As previously reported by UncoverDC, the board, under the direction of Ross McLeod, ignored the hundreds of individuals united together Monday night to ask their elected spokespeople to reconsider the choice of Mark Lindeman. Many consider the announcement of Lindeman's connection to left-leaning Verified Voting, of which he is Co-Director, to be a conflict of interest and worthy of further debate. Verified Voting, who recently said an audit in Maricopa County would "stoke conspiracy theories and partisan gamesmanship," can easily be traced to ties with George Soros through its association with the Democracy Alliance (among others).
Ken Eyring, a Windham resident who presents a calm and methodical approach in his pursuit of election integrity, stated the disregard shown by Board Members McLeod, Partington, and Hohenberger for their constituents is stunning, adding that "logic and research have been lacking regarding the Board's entire selection process—and that is what enraged so many Windham residents." Eyring shared McLeod's message to community members at Monday night's meeting:
"Who yells the loudest is irrelevant. Who sends the most emails or letters to the selectman and the selectwoman is irrelevant. Who shows the most passion is irrelevant. What is required… What is required is the vendor who can do the work in the fairest and most scientific manner and report… (moans by the crowd)... What, you guys afraid of science? They need to report the strongest results possible. And our duty as a Board is to the people of Windham! WE ARE THE WINDHAM BOARD OF SELECTMEN!"
Auditor Designated by the SoS and AG
On May 3, Attorney General John Formella and Secretary of State Bill Gardner selected Harri Hursti as their joint designee to the forensic audit team, alerting Bernard Campbell of the Windham Town Council. Hursti, a computer programmer from Finland and the Founding Partner of Nordic Innovations Lab, is featured in the March 2020 HBO Documentary Kill Chain, released in advance of the 2020 Presidential election. The film "takes a deep dive into the weaknesses of today's election technology, investigating the startling vulnerabilities in America's voting systems and the alarming risks they pose to our democracy."
On May 6 of last year, Hursti and activist Alyssa Milano, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Def Con founder Jeff Moss hosted an online event called FreeSpeechForPeople.org. Interestingly, after the Nov. 3 General Election, President Trump tweeted a video from Def Con's 2019 hacker convention, showing attendees engaging in an event called the voting machine hacking village. Trump also tweeted that polling machines made by Dominion Voting Systems deleted 2.7 million Trump votes during the election. On Nov. 16, 2020, following President Trump's tweets, computer scientists from all corners of the nation joined together to issue a statement declaring there was no credible evidence of computer fraud in the 2020 election. The list of experts—which includes Appel, Hursti, and Stark—declared:
We are aware of alarming assertions being made that the 2020 election was "rigged" by exploiting technical vulnerabilities. However, in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent. To our collective knowledge, no credible evidence has been put forth that supports a conclusion that the 2020 election outcome in any state has been altered through technical compromise.
Auditor Selected Jointly by the Designee of the Town and SoS and AG
Philip Stark, who was previously listed on Harri Hursti's Nordic Innovations website, but has since been removed, is the auditor selected jointly by the designee of the town of Windham (which, according to Ross McLeod, implies the Board of Selectmen) and the offices of the SoS and AG. Stark is a professor of statistics and associate dean at the University of California and, in legal declarations, disagreed with SoS Raffensperger's assessment of the Fulton County Pilot Audit that took place before the 2020 election. In November 2019, Stark resigned from the Board of Lindeman's Verified Voting, affirming in his resignation letter:
"I believe that Verified Voting has lost its way. It has been providing cover for inherently untrustworthy voting systems–and the officials who bought them, the companies that make them, and any officials who might contemplate buying them in the future–by conducting "risk-limiting audits" of untrustworthy paper records, creating the false and misleading impression that relying on untrustworthy paper for a RLA can confirm election outcomes(and debasing the meaning of "RLA" in the process). This contradicts the most basic principle of Evidence-Based Elections: the need to establish that the paper trail is trustworthy."
Windham Residents Refuse to Be Silenced
There is currently an all-hands-on-deck campaign underway, driven by the NH Integrity Voting Group, to hire an additional forensic auditor and establish legal representation. The group is now canvassing the town, gathering signatures to bring in Jovan Pulitzer. Once enough signatures are collected, Selectman Heath Partington has indicated he will present a motion to reconsider Lindeman as the auditor designee for the people of Windham. Meanwhile, Selectwoman Jenn Simmons has remained silent for the second week in a row. UncoverDC spoke to local resident and election integrity advocate Lisa Mazur, who indicated the group has a meeting planned tonight, which may be live-streamed. Stay tuned.
