We went out nice and early (about 7:30 AM) to set up shop in Thornton and Woodstock. Throughout the day I switched between the two polling places with my mom. At least ten other people helped out throughout the day at both places (Thanks for your help guys!).
I started off in Thornton. The people there were very receptive of me. Almost all of them took my little piece of paper that said "Write In Tyler Stearns - State Representative". Very pleased with the efforts that went on there all day.
Woodstock was a different story. When I got there I see that there is a designated electioneering zone. On one side it was 30 feet away from the polling place and on the other side it was over 50 feet away! That made me very angry. We were the only ones there; did they think we were going to somehow make people not come to vote? We also weren't allowed to 'solicite' people. That means we couldn't say "Write In Tyler Stearns" OR offer people the paper we were handing out. They said the voter had to come to us first.
Since I wasn't allowed to stand within 30 feet of the polling place I decided to move my truck closer to the entrance. My truck has big magnets on the tailgate that say "Vote Tyler Stearns -- State Rep - For Change". I then put one of my signs that said "Please Write In Tyler Stearns for State Rep" in my truck so people could see it. The town moderator came out and took down my sign and told me to move my truck because the messages it had on it were "inappropriate". I told him that since the sign was on my truck it could be there, but he rebutted by saying it wasn't attached so I couldn't have it. I said that the car magnets weren't technically attached either, so he said I should probably take those off too.
Well, I always make a point to question authority (which every good citizen should do), so I called the Secretary of State's office to check on the legality of what he did. The law states that any legally parked vehicle can display any kind of political message it wants, without interference from the town. The SoS's office said that the town moderator was NOT allowed to touch my private property and that all of the political messages on my truck were protected speech. They said that if he wanted me to move my truck he would have to move every car in the entire parking lot and not allow anyone to park there.
After that call I proceeded to put the sign back up because it was totally within my rights to do so. Well the moderator came back out and asked me to move my truck. I told him I had every right to be parked there and he couldn't move my truck unless he moved every other car. He called the SoS's office to try and get me to leave. They said they would call him back and he would talk to me later. Either they didn't call him back, or they gave him news he didn't want to hear; he never came back out to talk to me all day.
Lesson: Always stand up for your rights even if an authority figure says you don't have any.
However, I don't think that the moderator was used to anyone contradicting him (let alone a young person doing so). According to my mom, who is also my campaign manager, a man came out of the polling place in Woodstock and said that he had written in my name for State Rep. He went on to say that I should probably make amends with the moderator cause he was angry that I was being "disrespectful." There are a few things wrong with this. First of all, I wasn't being disrespectful; I was just being firm in asserting my rights. I always kept my voice low and never made any attacks at him. Secondly, it is against the law for an election official to make do any kind of electioneering while performing their duties. It is also illegal to do any electioneering while inside a polling place. Add in the handling of my private property on my truck and that is two violations and one misdemeanor. A total penalty of up to $1,000 per violation and $2,000 for a class A misdemeanor.
I am not going to be filing a formal complaint because I am not that kind of guy. I don't have any vendetta against the moderator; infact he seemed like a very nice man and I respect his many years of service for the town of Woodstock greatly. I just want everyone to have an equal chance to be elected to office, as provided by the NH Constitution. What's good for the average citizen is good for the government also.
Now enough of that story about the Individual vs. The State. Onto the more important aspect of the day, the results of the primary. It was a hard fought day but we didn't win (or did we?). Out of the two towns I won the Republican and Democratic Primary in Thornton, but lost both in Woodstock. Given the spread I lost by about 10 overall in the Democratic Primary and by about 20 in the Republican. Not too shabby as a write-in. But thise is the part I like: combined between the two primaries (Dem and GOP) I got over 110 votes. Bonnie Ham, the Republican, got 86. Bob Matheson, the Democrat, got about 57. So if this were a race between all of us in one single race I would have won! I like to think of it as we lost the battle, but we are winning the war.
This is all a great sign of things to come. These results were so great that I was mentioned on the Front Page of the Record Enterprise! I still need lots of help to get things done. I need volunteers to go door knocking and people to stand at the polling places on November 7th.
If you can help in anyway just tell me.
In Libertate,
Tyler
