November 13, 2008
Sievers’10 wins race for county treasurer
Dartmouth College junior Vanessa Sievers’ surprise defeat of Grafton County Treasurer Carol Elliott in last week’s election — thanks to the college vote in Hanover and Plymouth, N.H. — has spurred earnest proclamations of deep student interest in local New Hampshire government.
However, even this student admitted that basically, they could care less about Graftonites taxes.
“Our taxes don’t go to public schools, our money doesn’t pay for the roads here; we do not truly consider ourselves Grafton County-ites. When people ask where you go to school, you say Dartmouth. You never say you’re from Hanover, but some far-off place you call “home.” And by voting for one of our carpet-bagging compatriots, we’ve done Grafton a great disservice,” he wrote.
Elliott, of course, didn’t help her cause in yesterday’s Valley News by calling Sievers, a 20-year-old Montana native, a “teenybopper,” and maintaining that college students were “brainwashed” into voting straight down the Democratic ticket – picked up by Politico: County treasurer defeated by ‘teenybopper’ student
But there is plenty of evidence — and hard data — to suggest that college students in Hanover have zero interest in local politics, but rather, since they had ventured off campus to vote for Barack Obama anyway, decided to fill in the blanks on the rest of the Democratic ballot.
More than 2,250 Dartmouth students voted last week, about 30 percent of Hanover’s turnout. And 1,862 voters between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in Hanover in New Hampshire’s January presidential primary, that crucial contest pitting Obama against Hillary Clinton and John McCain against a slew of forgettable Republican rivals.
But when it came to voting on local budgets and local elections in general, forget about it.
Just 29 Hanover voters between the ages 18-24 voted in New Hampshire’s primary in September, which included a GOP House primary and a Democratic contest for Grafton County Register of Deeds, according to statistics from the town of Hanover.
And absolutely no voters in that 18-to-24 age cohort — that’s right: zero, nada, none — voted at Hanover’s May 2008 Town Meeting, where the 135 attendees approved a $7.4 million renovation to the town’s water reclamation facility and $19.4 million in municipal spending.
Sievers, incidentally, voted in Hanover in November 2006, in the September state primary, and last week, according to town records, but was not checked on the voter checklist in the January presidential primary or the May Town Meeting.
Cindi Graf, a title abstracter from Lyme who supported Republican Lynn Wheeler in her unsuccessful bid to oust Grafton County Register of Deeds Bill Sharp — another beneficiary of the college vote — said it was regrettable that students didn’t do more to learn about the local issues and candidates if they vote in such elections.
“I still think they are not interested in local politics,” Graf said. “They don’t have a real interest in county politics, because it doesn’t impact on their four years in college or however long they are there.”
Don’t look for any immediate changes coming out of Concord. State Sen. Deborah Reynolds, the Plymouth Democrat who represents part of the Upper Valley, said, “If we’re looking at who gets to vote for what elections, I think we have to be very careful about making sure that one of our major freedoms as Americans is protected, and where do we draw the line?”
And state Sen.-elect Matthew Houde, the Plainfield Democrat about to represent the Lebanon-area district that includes Hanover, said Dartmouth students contribute to the community in terms of volunteerism, economic stimulus, cultural events and other factors.
“I don’t mean to underplay this issue, but I don’t see it as a front-burner issue this term,” Houde said of the impact of the college vote in county offices. “I see it as a topic for discussion, but it may not be a topic for action this term.”
Incidentally, Reynolds, who just won election to a second term, is slated to become the Senate Democratic whip. She said she is “very honored to be part of” Senate President Sylvia Larsen’s leadership team.
Poll Watchers
Lebanon’s Ward 2 polls hosted an unusual trio late on Election Day. A delegation of international election observers from Italy hit the city. Valley News colleague Kristen Fountain reports that they joked that they hoped to be sent to Florida, but enjoyed themselves in Lebanon just the same.
Andrea Marcucci, a member of the Senato della Repubblica from Florence, told Fountain after visiting the polls inside the United Methodist Church, “I think it is going well, but there are some things to point out that can be better.”
The delegation suggested there could be more privacy for voters, noting that there were several points in the process where other voters and election workers could possibly see how a person voted. Also, they worried that New Hampshire’s same-day registration raised the possibility that people would vote in several towns or even states.
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Here is the NH State Statute regarding residency requirements for officeholders:
655:9 County officers.
To hold the office of county commissioner, sheriff, county attorney, county treasurer, register of deeds, or register of probate, a person must have a domicile in the county for which he is chosen. In addition, to hold the office of county commissioner in the counties of Rockingham, Belknap, Grafton, Merrimack, Hillsborough, Cheshire, Sullivan, Coos, and Carroll, a person must have a domicile in the district from which he is elected at the time of his election.
Source. 1979, 436:1, eff. July 1, 1979.