{"id":700,"date":"2009-05-11T02:51:10","date_gmt":"2009-05-11T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=700"},"modified":"2017-11-16T12:24:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T17:24:09","slug":"ethics-peter-out-in-peterborough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2009\/05\/11\/ethics-peter-out-in-peterborough\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics Peter Out In Peterborough"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ed Naile<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is how municipal doubletalk evolves regarding municipal electioneering when municipal lawyers are involved – no wonder taxpayers get confused.<\/p>\n

Peterborough, an elitist NH town full of Obama Republicans, has an election coming up and the powers that be want to make absolutely sure no lower class beings get a leg up on any office they currently control, so the current Selectmen generated a letter of endorsement for their candidate and poped it in the local paper.<\/p>\n

Here is the event as described by the SentinelSource.com site:<\/p>\n

\u201cA week before town elections, Peterborough\u2019s board of selectmen has been told by the N.H. Attorney General that letters they sent to the editor of a local newspaper were illegal electioneering.<\/p>\n

The selectmen sent a letter last month to the editor of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript newspaper endorsing Carol A. Lenox for town clerk in next week\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

A letter from Chairman Barbara A. Miller and Joseph J. Byk endorsing fellow selectman Elizabeth M. Thomas for re-election also appeared in last week\u2019s Ledger-Transcript.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte\u2019s office ruled Tuesday that endorsing candidates, or electioneering as selectmen, is illegal, and sent the board a cease-and-desist order.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the selectmen don\u2019t plan to contest the ruling, said Miller, they stand behind the letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in a letter to the board, the town\u2019s attorney, John J. Ratigan, questioned the state\u2019s interpretation of the statute, titled \u201cElectioneering at the Polling Place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The statute in question which the AG\u2019s Office says was violated is here:<\/p>\n


\nSection 659:44<\/p>\n

659:44 Electioneering at the Polling Place. \u2013 No election officer shall electioneer while in the performance of his official duties. For the purposes of this section, “”electioneer” shall mean to act in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office. Any person who violates this provision shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
\nSource. 1979, 436:1, eff. July 1, 1979.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

You may notice the title of 659:44 is \u201cElectioneering At The Polling Place.\u201d The Peterborough attorney, John Ratigan noticed the title as well and claims the Peterborough Selectmen did nothing wrong by endorsing a candidate while technically NOT at a polling place. Nice try attorney Ratigan – give the board that pays you some cover.<\/p>\n

From the same SentinelSource.com article:<\/p>\n

\u201cRatigan wrote: \u201cThe issuance of these candidate support letters had nothing to do with conduct at the polling place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be different, Ratigan said in an interview, if an election officer wore a candidate\u2019s pin or carried a sign at the polls, which he said is clearly against the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe selectmen wear their selectmen hat 365 days of the year and three days of the year they perform official duties as election officials,\u201d Ratigan said. \u201cYou would not expect selectmen at the polls to be glad-handing or electioneering.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Associate Attorney General Anne M. Edwards said electioneering, which is defined in state statues as acting \u201cin any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office,\u201d is not limited to Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ruling was that selectmen are included under the definition of election officers, and under another law election officers are not allowed to electioneer,\u201d Edwards said.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Nice, quibble about \u201cat the polls\u201d or \u201cin official capacity\u201d all you want but there is another fly in the ointment.<\/p>\n

If the Peterborough Selectmen got together and penned a letter in support of a candidate and they did that in their official capacity as Selectmen then the discussion of it should be in their MINUTES!<\/p>\n

The suggestion to take an action to write a letter supporting a candidate should have been on the meeting AGENDA!<\/p>\n

The VOTE to do so should be in the MINUTES as well, unless of course they did this by PHONE or at some other undisclosed meeting.<\/p>\n

And one more little mention should be made.<\/p>\n

If the Peterborough Selectmen are using the Town resources such as the office, secretary, email, printer, computers, etc., than endorsements on behalf of any candidate or issue is a violation of compelled speech (using government resources to politic), a violation of the rights of the other candidate or issue\u2019s supporters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ah, but this is New Hampshire and officials have to have an attorney to cover their tracks when they break the law, much as Attorney Ratigan, a few years back, wrote a letter to some of his past clients, the Berlin City Council, on how to avoid the limits of the Right to Know Law. CNHT has a copy of that fine piece of legal advice stashed in our office.<\/p>\n

Did I mention Peterborough Selectman Joe Byk is a lawyer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ed Naile Here is how municipal doubletalk evolves regarding municipal electioneering when municipal lawyers are involved – no wonder taxpayers get confused. Peterborough, an elitist NH town full of Obama Republicans, has an election coming up and the powers that be want to make absolutely sure no lower class beings get a leg up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electioneering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4396,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/4396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}