Politics & Government
Tempers Flare At Windham Meeting About 2020 Election Audit: Watch
Hundreds of constituents forced a Board of Selectmen's meeting to be moved to an auditorium and expressed anger about the selection process.
WINDHAM, NH — The Windham Board of Selectmen met on Monday at the Town Hall for its weekly meeting but when hundreds of people arrived, they caused the members to call for a recess and move the meeting to the Windham High School Auditorium.
The scheduled meeting contained an item about auditing the November 2020 vote on the agenda that has gained national attention. Several police officers at the Town Hall directed participants to the high school just west of Town Hall. Some participants walked in large groups holding signs and banners while others formed a small motorcade honking their horns and shouting from their vehicles.
The crowd of about 500 people in the auditorium was very vocal prior to the beginning of the meeting and was shouting at the selectmen who were on the stage of the auditorium. At one point, the audience cited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the National Anthem, and America the Beautiful.
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At about 8:30 p.m. the meeting was called to order by Ross McLeod, the co-chairman of the Board of Selectmen, after the delay to move location and the needed time for Windham TV to set up the live stream.
Selectman Bruce Breton filed a motion asking his colleagues to reconsider the town's selection of Verified Voting to be the town's representative to perform the audit but the motion did not have enough votes to move forward. Breton asked his fellow selectmen to reconsider a 3-1 vote taken April 26 that selected Mark Lindeman, co-director of the organization Verified Voting, citing conflicts of interest — specifically, letters Lindeman signed challenging the Maricopa County Arizona recount.
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At the April 26 meeting, McLeod, Heath Partington, and Roger Hohenberger all voted to support Lindeman as the top choice with Breton putting his faith instead behind another interested candidate, Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, a computer scientist and inventor.
The meeting was stopped and a 5-minute recess was called on multiple occasions. Each selectman had the opportunity to speak and ask questions of Breton, and were interrupted many times by the audience.
After several interruptions, members of the audience clearly frustrated began to leave, and yell at the selectmen as they left.
As tensions built, a large amount of Windham police officers took positions in front of the stage, creating a barrier between the audience and the board.
Additional officers from Salem, Derry, and Londonderry arrived at the high school to provide additional resources if needed.
As discussions concluded the large number of people remaining in the audience stood and turned their backs to the stage, verbally expressing their displeasure.
A final vote was taken without the needed votes to overturn the original selection of who would provide the forensic audit.
The crowd peacefully left the auditorium and gathered for a short time in the parking lot.
There were no apparent arrests or physical altercations.
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©Jeffrey Hastings www.frameofmindphoto.com/news.
