------------------------------Black Box Voting : Latest Investigations from Black Box Voting: 1-17-08: Ballot boxes found slit; NH stops putting ballots in vault;------------------------------------------------------------Posted by Bev Harris on Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 10:48 pm:No worries, say New Hampshire officials when cuts up to eight incheslong are spotted in newly delivered ballot boxes. "The only seal thatcounts is the one on top."Except the seal on top can be peeled off without leaving a trace, thenreaffixed.Black Box Voting has been doing a chain of custody exam for the New Hampshire Primary's recount. On Wednesday night, Election DefenseAlliance's Sally Castleman mentioned a troubling observation: Afterfollowing the ballots back to the ballot vault following Wednesday'srecount, she had the opportunity to enter the ballot vault, andnoticed what looked like cuts, or slits, in the side of many ballotboxes. New Hampshire officials assured us that these cuts, which slicethrough the tape, seals and box itself do not permit access to theuncounted ballots, pointing to a label on the boxtop which they call aseal.But the "seal" can be removed, like a Post-it, and reaffixed. So it'snot a seal all!We wanted to know if the ballot boxes were slit while in the vault, inthe transport van, or came from the towns with slits in them.I confirmed this morning that many if not most of the boxes scheduledto be counted today had slits in them. I went out when a vanload ofballots arrived, and saw that they were slit at the time they arrivedby van. Susan Pynchon and I drove to two nearby towns and watched asthey handed over their ballot boxes to "Butch and Hoppy", the two menwho drive around in the state in a van picking the ballots up. Weobserved as they loaded boxes of ballots into the van with no slits atall in them. We videotaped each of these up close. They arrived at thedestination without slits. The label on the top was affixed, but insome cases was crumpled, or also damaged.Of cource, the label affixed to the top can be removed and reattachedwithout telltale signs.No vault tonightA significant departure from the normal chain of custody path occurredtonight. They decided not to use the vault to store the ballots.More tomorrow.------------------------------------------------------------Use this link to go directly to full article: