Most trials are pretty dull, but this one has lots of laughs and absurdities as the Sheriff attempts to defend his shoddy and unconstitutional order and the women that work at the court claim they were scared of peaceful, singing activists who dared ask them questions!
Judge Burke came off as objective today and even interjected thoughtful questions. Enjoy the video, there are gold nuggets of content in here:
UPDATE: The video has now had the traffic noise removed.
Dave Ridley recently released a compilation video of ambush interviews with legislators, and ultimately, a representative of the liquor commission. The focus of his interviews is the ban on some liquor store protestors who sang inside a now defunct Concord store on one occasion, and numerous times outside of others. Meanwhile, the liquor commission is currently under threat of restructuring after a state house panel found the commission in violation of a prohibition on contracting lobbyists. Ridley’s interviews are embedded below.
The detailed numbers are in from the city clerk’s office regarding how many people voted in the Keene election, specifically District 16 State Rep, which covered all of Keene and featured three candidates – myself, incumbent Chuck Weed, and former state rep Delmar Burridge.
According to the results, 12,699 ballots were cast in Keene.
Chuck Weed won reelection handily with 60% of voters (7623) choosing him.
Delmar Burridge won with 44% of voters (5591) choosing him
I received votes from 11.7% (1490) of voters.
There were over 10,000 “blanks” in our race, which means many people either didn’t vote in the race at all or only chose one of two possible candidates. There is no way to calculate how many people voted in the race in total. Presuming everyone who voted for Chuck Weed comprises roughly the total number of voters in the race (there is no way to know for sure), then it appears about 1/5th of all voters in the race may have voted Libertarian – about 20%.
Thanks again to all who supported my candidacy. I’ll be back for city council in 2013!
According to an email from city clerk Patty Little, they found an error in their calculations spreadsheet revealing that fewer ballots were cast than their numbers originally showed. As a result, voter turnout was 69% of registered voters in Keene, not the 76% as reported by the clerk’s original numbers.
Kudos to Patty and the crew there for being willing to take a second look at their numbers. Here’s her email explaining what had gone wrong:
Hi Ian, I have had a chance to review your questions and have attached an updated spreadsheet of election activity. We decided that our previous spreadsheet was confusing because the number of absentee ballots was already included in the total ballots cast figure…and also inaccurate because the “formula” was accounting for absentee ballots twice. In addition, to clarifying the layout of the spreadsheet, we’ve updated some of the actual figures based upon corrections made to the Secretary of State and the correct “formula.” (more…)
If 22 national petitions filed on Whitehouse.gov, and an article today in the Concord Monitor are any indicator, discussion of the concept of secession is spreading rapidly through the minds of many in the United States. The Examiner reports that as of Monday, 22 states have a number of people circulating petitions for recognition of potential independence on the White House’s official petitioning website. While these numbers are currently in the hundreds and low thousands, the recognition of the legitimacy of the concept seems to be reaching a high water mark, and could continue swelling.
Ben Leubsdorf has penned two article’s in today’s Monitor about individuals making major movement with their feet, both into and out of New Hampshire. He reports on the expatriation of Frank Szabo, the controversial candidate for sheriff of Hillsborough County. Szabo announced early in his candidacy for the republican nomination that he had interest in protecting the sovereignty of New Hampshire from unconstitutional federal law enforcement actions. His campaign crashed and burned when he advocated enforcing non-existent laws against abortion seekers and providers. He announced Sunday on his facebook page that he had recently relocated to South America, where he plans to enjoy the remainder of his days. Currently in Chile, he states that he hopes to see extended family and friends in the future, though that may require that they voyage to visit him. He also announced in his facebook post that the IRS has seized $36,000 from him. (more…)
Congratulations to Free State Project participant Tim O’Flaherty for winning his state representative race in Manchester. Tim self-describes as an anarchist and has won as a Democrat in a race against a small government Republican, who happens to be Tim’s roommate, Dan Garthwaite, another early mover for the FSP.
