Also on today’s menu:
NH House Wants War Powers Confined To Congress
Gerhard Loses Bid For Gun Ownership
Lawmakers To Consider Expansion Of EFA Eligibility
The moderator of the Coos County township of Hart’s Location, Les Schoof, has decided to abandon a longstanding tradition of opening the polls at midnight for the state’s first-in-the-nation primary, due to the anticipated number of write-in votes that ballot clerks will have to count. Hart’s Location has one of the state’s smallest populations: 44.
“There are 20-plus categories on each ballot. We didn’t want to stay up ’til 2 in the morning tabulating all of those write-ins,” Schoof told the Conway Daily Sun. He also noted that there are more stringent voting law requirements this year.
Mark Dindorf, chair of the Hart’s Location Board of Selectmen, said he had wanted to continue the midnight tradition, but, “The challenge has been mounting in terms of the increasing amount of paperwork and reporting required in the aftermath of the past election, and to manage the added write-ins was an added challenge. It would be difficult for us to turn [the results] around.”
Secretary of State David Scanlan’s office said that, with President Joe Biden Jr. refusing to place his name on New Hampshire’s ballots, and with many Democrats indicating that they will write in his name, anyway, the township of Millsfield, which has a population of 21, also will not conduct midnight voting this year. Dixville Notch, with its population of 12, however, is continuing the practice.
Discussion: It’s somewhat amusing to learn that Schoof considers spending two hours counting ballots is a hardship. Three to five hours is standard for most communities, and with this year’s expected high number write-ins, it’s likely to take much longer. I’m sure many towns would gladly settle for a two-hour assignment.
NH House Wants War Powers Confined To Congress
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US Congress passed the Authorization of the Use of Military Force bill, delegating the authority to declare war on other nations to the president of the United States. Members of the NH House of Representatives voted, 187-182, for House Bill 229 on January 4, which would require Congress to reassume its constitutional role in the declaration of war before the state deploys the New Hampshire National Guard in overseas combat. The bill would not affect domestic guard activity.
Representative Matthew Santonastaso (R-Jaffrey) said that, by abandoning its constitutional role, Congress has sidestepped its responsibilities and given unchecked power to the president.
Representative Stephen Shurtleff (D-Penacook), noting that the State Veterans’ Advisory Council had voted, 20-0, to oppose the bill, said, “This is not a good bill. It is not good for the National Guard, it is not good for New Hampshire, it is not good for our country, and it is not good for our people on active duty.” In opposing passage, Shurtleff noted that the state receives as much as $2 billion annually from the Department of Defense, which allows the purchase of airplanes for the Air National Guard and for the helicopters that often are used to rescue people.
Representative Tom Mannion (R-Pelham) said it would be political suicide for a politician to withhold federal money because of the bill, noting that, since the authorization of force was passed, the National Guard has been deployed in 22 countries “in never-ending wars”. The bill, he said, would stop the “uniparty war machine”.
Discussion: The Republicans are right. Congress has ceded too much power to the Executive Branch, undermining the checks and balances embedded in the US Constitution. The declaration of war should not be left to a single individual; rather, it should be a consensus decision by our elected representatives in Washington DC.
Gerhard Loses Bid For Gun Ownership
Representative Jason Gerhard (R-Northfield), who served time in a federal prison for his role in support of Ed and Elaine Brown of Plainfield during their standoffs with federal agents over their failure to pay taxes on their earnings, sponsored a bill that would have allowed a convicted felon to own a gun after serving out the sentence and making restoration.
The House voted, 297-63, on January 4 to kill the bill.
Discussion: Federal law prohibits felons from owning or possessing firearms, yet some states grant those rights after the felon has served the sentence or completed a waiting period. Likewise, the common practice in the United States is to make felons ineligible to vote, but some states have changed that stance. The fact that Gerhard is allowed to serve in the NH House of Representatives attests to the Granite State’s willingness to restore civil rights to rehabilitated felons; but there continues to be a concern that felons owning guns poses too great a risk. Then there is the ethical question of sponsoring legislation that would provide a personal benefit to the sponsor.
Lawmakers To Consider Expansion Of EFA Eligibility
HB 1561, sponsored by Representative Joe Sweeney (R-Salem), would make more students eligible for Education Freedom Accounts that subsidize the costs of attendance at private schools for students that otherwise would be attending public schools.
The program currently is available to students from households with annual incomes as high as 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The bill would increase that to 350 percent for first-year attendance, with no income threshold for subsequent years. The bill specifies that students in the special school district within the NH Department of Corrections do not qualify.
Other factors to qualify for the assistance are concern about the spread of contagious diseases; persistently being bullied; identifying as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, or non-binary; having tested in the bottom 25th percentile in state standardized testing; having been diagnosed with an eating disorder or a mental health illness; living in a district with PFAS drinking water levels that exceed standards; those attending schools within the bottom 10th percentile in standardized testing; and those whose guidance counselor determines participation is in the best interest of the student.
Other sponsors of the bill are Jason Osborne and Joe Alexander.
Discussion: Criticism of Education Freedom Accounts focuses mainly on the high cost of the program and the difficulty of ascertaining what such a popular program will cost the state. What the critics ignore is the reduced cost on the other side of the scale: funding for public education. On a per-pupil basis, the state spends less on EFA students than on public school students. Where the EFA program fails is in continuing to cover students whose family income increases enough to afford private school attendance on their own. HB 1561 would keep that provision, while increasing the level of income that qualifies. For that reason, the bill should be defeated. (As for the argument that the state should not be subsidizing schools operated by religious organizations — It is not a violation of the separation of church and state if the state is not promoting that religion but is only looking at the educational value of the education. If the local public school is providing an inadequate education or not meeting a student’s particular needs, it is altogether proper to support that student’s attendance at an institution that provides an adequate education.)