by Skeptikos | Mar 5, 2011 |
Keene school board elections are this Tuesday, March 8th. The Sentinel has profiles of the six candidates:
Neil W. Donegan and Kathleen O’Donnell.
Robert L. Peiffer 3rd, Kimberly A. Simmons, John Stewart, and Ann F. Szot.
(Here‘s an older post about the school board.)
The Keene school district website says, “The election is set for March 8, 2011 at the polls, which are open from 7:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. Wards 1, 2 & 3 vote at the Keene Recreation Center, 312 Washington Street, and Wards 4 & 5 vote at the First Baptist Church, 105 Maple Avenue. Same day registration is available.”
This is a chance to have a slightly more effective influence over school board decisions, as opposed to holding signs in front of the middle school.
Update: more information on this thread. Thanks, Keith.
by Skeptikos | Feb 23, 2011 |
[Updated with a response to commenters.]
A bill that would require college students to vote in their home towns, rather than in their college towns, has been generating a lot of controversy lately. A public hearing will be held tomorrow at the statehouse.
The debate surrounding the bill has been predictable: bill supporters – all of them Republicans, as far as I know – have argued that students are depriving college towns of their political self-determination. (Laughably false, given students’ low turnout.) Hyper-partisan Democrats have responded by loudly proclaiming that Republicans are trying to deprive students of their right to vote. (Just plain not true.)
It seems that the only people talking sense are the students themselves. (more…)
by Skeptikos | Feb 21, 2011 |
Journalists are often forced to oversimplify the blurry, confusing reality of the Keene libertarian movement due to constraints on time and newspaper space. Local liberty activists sometimes oversimplify, too– or are even misinformed themselves. This can create frustrating misconceptions, so it’s good to clarify the relationship between the different activists and organizations and activities every once in a while.
Last night’s WMUR report provides some perfect examples of possibly misleading simplifications. (Not to pick on them– I think they summarized the situation fairly, all things considered.)
WMUR claims that Free Keene is an “offshoot” of the Free State Project. Is it? (more…)
by Skeptikos | Feb 6, 2011 |
Since I was unable to attend the hearing for HB240 on Tuesday, I instead asked bill co-sponsor Seth Cohn about events there.
According to Cohn, the hearing didn’t go as well as he had hoped.
Secretary of State William Gardner, who oversees New Hampshire elections, spoke against the bill, arguing that New Hampshire should not be the first state to try this out, in case there are unintended consequences. (Gardner has apparently been NH Secretary of State since 1976. I don’t know how or why.)
Although he thinks passing the bill will be a struggle, Cohn added that bill supporters intend to “fight the good fight” on the House floor regardless of how the House Election Law committee votes.
Added: Approval voting advocate “Clay Doe”, in the comments, wants me to promote his informative page about HB240. It’s awesome, so I will. The Center for Election Science, HB240.
by Skeptikos | Feb 3, 2011 |
Via John DiStaso:
state Rep. David Pierce, D-Etna, told the Status that he and Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, are organizing a legislative caucus, called the Freedom and Family Coalition, which he says will be open to members of both parties to counter “partisan diversions.” …
Pierce said the Freedom and Family Coalition is just getting started, “and hopefully members from all sides of the aisle will want to join. I get the sense that the Republican caucus has many factions.”
(The large block of libertarian Republicans is presumably one of the targeted factions.)
He said that “voters spoke clearly in November that they want the Legislature to focus on the economy, jobs and keeping things within the Constitution, and the Republican leadership has not done that.
“We’re directed toward keeping the middle class free, not only on constitutional issues like marriage equality, but also on economic issues. There are still too many people out of work and too many foreclosures. We’ll try to cite policies to create jobs in New Hampshire and improve the economy.” (more…)
