FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Before the Deliberative Session, Conan Salada collected signatures on 7 warrant articles to be placed on the official ballot before voters in the upcoming Keene School District election.
During the Deliberative Session, all 7 warrant articles were amended in a manner that eliminated the subject. These amendments were challenged as out of order, however the moderator over-ruled those motions, and the majority of voters in attendance agreed with the moderator. The Keene Sentinel described these changes as “Machiavellian legal maneuvering… to avoid letting voters decide the merits of the articles“.
After the Deliberative Session, Darryl W. Perry, was directed to the 2011 Rockingham Superior Court decision in the case of Bailey v. Town of Exeter. In Bailey, the Court ruled, “the Court finds and rules the only way the phrase ‘no warrant article shall be amended to eliminate the subject matter of the article’ can logically be read is to conclude that any amendment that made the subject matter of the article a nullity was forbidden,” adding that “[m]erely because the majority of the voters were more clever in the way the amendment was worded to create the nullity does not mean their action was not a violation of the statute.”
Perry, Salada and two other voters (David Crawford and Eric LaRoche) have filed suit against the School District due to the illegal actions at the Deliberative Session that have disenfranchised the voters of Keene, including petitioners.
The filing can be read here. A court date has been set for Friday, February 28 at 11am.
