Also on today’s menu:
Election Workers Face Strict Bounds In Write-In Campaign
Community Mourns Death Of Barbara Greenwood
Representative Kristine Perez (R-Londonderry) characterized House Bill 1002 as “the right-to-know if you can afford it” law during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in Concord on January 17. The bill would allow cities and towns to charge as much as $25 an hour to meet right-to-know requests that take more than 10 hours to produce — with subsequent requests for followup material included in that calculation. (The legislation was discussed in the News Café on December 29.)
Supporters say the charges are justified to deter citizens from “weaponizing” RSA 91-A by making large information requests that prevent public employees from doing their jobs. Sunapee Town Manager Shannon Martinez said that, while she believes residents should have access to public documents, the town processed more than 70 right-to-know requests in 2023, which in sone cases required more than 30 hours to retrieve. Twenty-nine of the requests were from one person, and Martinez said she spent an average of five hours a week, totaling 260 hours, to satisfy those requests.
Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union-New Hampshire, said “transparency has suffered” in other states that have impose such fees. New Hampshire already allows municipalities to charge copying costs as high as a dollar a page, and Bissonnette said that is working. Brendan McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader and president of the New Hampshire Press Association, also voiced strong opposition to the bill, pushing back on the notion that those making requests are “annoying” citizens. “This bill provides a very potent weapon to any agency that is currently unresponsive, and I would encourage you not to give them that,” he said.
Discussion: The right to know is one of the most important ways of knowing how well those in municipal government serve us, and it is part of their jobs to respond to requests. That is the bottom line.
Election Workers Face Strict Bounds In Write-In Campaign
Hadley Barndollar in the New Hampshire Bulletin raised an important issue about the write-in campaign for President Joe Biden Jr., who chose not to run for re-election in New Hampshire because the state followed its election laws rather than allowing the Democratic National Committee dictate which state would hold the first presidential primary (The DNC ruled it should be South Carolina, where Biden’s 2020 campaign took off). Barndollar’s article addresses the question of how election workers can legally respond to questions such as “Where is Joe Biden on the ballot?” or “Why isn’t Joe Biden on the ballot?”
Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said the answer has to be generic to avoid violating the state’s election laws. “[I]f a voter asks why a particular candidate is not on the ballot … speak in generic terms and say any candidate that filled out a declaration of candidacy and met the qualifications, they are on the ballot,” Scanlan said. “If they aren’t, then they didn’t go through that exercise.”
If a voter asks how to vote for Biden, “You can write in any candidate of your choice,” and there instructions for doing so inside each voting booth. “The reason we tell them to do that is, if you have election officials … using specific names and that’s overheard, it could be perceived in an inappropriate way,” Scanlan said.
Discussion: Poll workers are mindful of the public’s fears about election fraud, and if they were to specifically say something like, “Fill in the circle and write in Joe Biden’s name,” they technically would be directing a citizen how to vote. New Hampshire elections have proven to be honest, and Scanlan’s job is to see that they remain so. As for how much power the Democratic National Committee holds — not much. Its purpose is to organize the next Democratic Party Convention and to govern the party until the next convention, but it lacks direct authority over party members. Thus New Hampshire Democrats are legally able to promote the primary, despite the national committee’s efforts to punish the Granite State through voter suppression.
Community Mourns Death Of Barbara Greenwood
Barbara Greenwood, 90, died on January 14, leaving behind a legacy of community involvement in Bristol. During her first year attending Bristol High School after moving to town, she was named the second-ever Bristol Winter Carnival Queen, but she said last March when selectmen dedicated the Bristol Town Report to her that the award that held the most meaning to her was receiving the DAR Good Citizenship Award in 1951 as Bristol’s first high school recipient. “That award meant so much to me — it still does,” she said, “and I hope that is what I’ve done over the years.”
Indeed, her “good citizenship” included her work with the Bristol Community Center (now the Tapply-Thompson Community Center) where she took over the Winter Carnival Queen program and worked on Santa’s Village, among other projects, and she revived Bristol’s Old Home Day tradition. She was one of the first teacher’s aides at Bristol Elementary School and took courses to fill the role of school librarian. She served as a trustee of the Minot-Sleeper Library and helped to promote the building of an addition to the building. She also was involved with the new town office building and public safety building.
Barbara also served for many years on the board of directors of the Liberty Independent Media Project and opened her home on School Street to provide a convenient location for our meetings. She finally resigned from the board in 2022 to reduce the number of commitments as she was approaching her 90th birthday.
Discussion: Few people, if any, have put as much effort and enthusiasm into improving her town as Barbara Greenwood. We’re sure to learn more of what she meant to the community during calling hours at the Old Town Hall on Summer Street on Sunday, January 28, from 1 to 4 p.m.
We will truly miss Barbara. Thank you for the lovely tribute.