Issuu

THE CONWAY DAILY SUN, Tuesday, February 8, 2011— Page 3

One man, multiple votes? Poll: Union Leader readership BY DAVID BROOKS THE NASHUA TELEGRAPH

CONCORD – The phrase “one man, one vote” doesn’t mean what you think it does, according to one of the more unusual laws being proposed in Concord. “It refers to letting people vote fairly, and to having correct proportional representation,” said Dan McGuire, a Republican state legislator from Epsom. What it doesn’t mean, he said, is that each vote must be for just one man. In fact, McGuire thinks New Hampshire voters should be allowed to vote for as many people as they want in any race. He has sponsored a bill, HB 240, which would tweak ballots for local and state elections in New Hampshire by “allowing voters to vote for multiple candidates for an offi ce.” It will be the subject of a hearing today. The bill wouldn’t let you vote for the same person more than once, but you could vote for multiple people running against each other. This approach, known as approval voting, is the simplest form of various alternatives to traditional voting patterns. Supporters say such alternatives create a better refl ection of the electorate’s overall opinion that the usual voting method, which is called first-past-the-post, or single-member plurality. “This gives voters more options …

to reﬂ ect how they feel about all the candidates,” McGuire said. To use an example that helped prod McGuire to draft the bill, consider November’s election for governor, which had three candidates. McGuire, a Republican, liked the GOP candidate, John Stephen, but he liked the libertarian candidate, John Babiarz, even more. Yet if he had voted for both, his ballot would have been tossed out as invalid – even though it would have been an accurate reﬂection of his wishes. He ended up voting for Stephen because Babiarz had no chance of winning, which is the sort of “gamesmanship” voting that he’d like New Hampshire to avoid. If his law goes through – which McGuire admits is unlikely, at least in the short term – he could have voted for both Stephen and Babiarz, even though only one seat was involved. In fact, he could have voted for John Lynch, as well. The multiple votes would have been tallied as always and the candidate with the most total votes would win, as currently happens. The most obvious difference is that the total number of votes cast in the race would be greater than the total number of people who cast those votes. Approval voting is one type of alternative voting schemes, which have names like Cordorcet Method and instant-runoff balloting.

Town stops burials because of snow DERRY — A local cemetery is not holding any more burials until the weather changes. Derry Town Administrator John Anderson said graves can’t be dug at Forest Hill Cemetery because the people who dig the graves are the same people who plow the roads, and after all the storms, they have no time to spare clearing the cemetery. Anderson said workers would have

to clear the snow from the cemetery and then jackhammer through the frost before digging the grave in a process that could take four hours. He said after the workers have been plowing roads for 24 to 36 hours straight, they can’t then work in the cemetery. He said the plan is to keep the cemetery closed for about four weeks, unless the weather changes signiﬁcantly. —Courtesy of WMUR

divided on effort to free Bird BY MARK HAYWARD THE UNION LEADER

Although the Free Ward Bird cry seemed to echo across New Hampshire, many UnionLeader.com readers don’t appear to share the sentiment. A survey of readers found 43 percent thought the Moultonborough farmer should have remained behind bars. But a combined 57 percent thought Bird should have been pardoned or had his sentence commuted. “Why bother having judges, trials and sentencing when you can just wait until your political party wants to make you a martyr for an issue they’re pushing?” wrote Manchester resident Jim Wilson, one of hundreds to post his thoughts about the Bird matter. The website invited readers to participate in the survey, which was available until Friday evening. Six hundred twenty-eight readers took the informal survey. Bird was charged with criminal threatening in March 2006, after he ordered a lost Christine Harris off his property and at one point drew a weapon. A jury convicted Bird in 2008 and he received a mandatory three- to six-year sentence. He was imprisoned late last year, after his appeals were exhausted.

His family and friends started the Free Ward Bird campaign on his behalf, arguing that a person should have the right to use a ﬁ rearm to defend his property. Many saw the issue as one of property rights or gunowner rights. “I don’t know Ward Bird nor do I know all the circumstances except that someone trespassed on his property even though it was posted and she saw it. He did not shoot her and if he did have a gun, he has a right to defend his property and his home,” wrote Don of Bedford. Bird applied for a pardon, and last week the Executive Council voted to commute Bird’s sentence, after Gov. John Lynch blocked an outright pardon. The commutation freed Bird from the Carroll County jail on Wednesday, but he remains a convicted felon. More than one-third of the respondents -- 36 percent -- thought Bird should have received an outright pardon. The lowest percentage, 21 percent, favored the commutation. “In this case, the punishment did not ﬁ t the crime (and I do believe a crime was committed),” wrote Bill of Nashua. “Time served, no longer allowed to possess weapons; sounds fair to me.”

T u esd a y -F rid a y D inner S p ecia ls sta rting a t$10.99 LUNCH & DINNER Tuesday-Saturday Lunch 11-2:30 • Dinner 5-9pm Sun 5-Close Open Mic • Closed Monday Just north of the hospital s r

356-8790

Englefino al Forno (Baked Haddock)..................$12.99 Lasagna............................................................$11.99 Pasta, Panna e Broccoli (Cream Sauce).............$10.99 Rollantini di Melanzane (Stuffed Eggplant)........$11.99 Open Monday, Valentine’s Day - Call for Reservations