| Remember when Dartmouth undergrad Vanessa Sievers won her Grafton County treasurer race, and the sour grapes incumbent who lost called her a "teenybopper" and accused her supporters of being "brainwashed"?
Well, apparently, the hard feelings are not over among the Hanover elephants: Yesterday, several frustrated members of the Hanover GOP committee questioned why Dartmouth students voted at all in county races. It seems unlikely that they knew very much about the candidates or the issues, they said.
"I read it as toying with democracy," said resident Jenni Stebbins. "I think what happened to (Elliott) is a shame and a sham."
Members of the committee floated several different ideas, including asking College Republicans to ask other students not to vote in the county elections. Is it any wonder why Hanover is the most Democratic town in the state of New Hampshire? The GOP there doesn't believe voters matter unless they reach a certain age. (At least the head of the GOP in Dartmouth had the good sense to knock that anti-democratic idea down.)
I don't know what's worse, the premise that college students' votes are less valuable than others, the presumption that they're not aware of local issues, or the mythos that the college vote is what makes Hanover left-leaning.
According to the Valley News article linked above, college students only accounted for about 30% of the vote in Hanover (around 2,250 voters). Now, let's review: Obama absolutely demolished McCain, 6140 to 1328. Jeanne Shaheen trounced John E. Sununu 5275 to 1813. Paul Hodes to Jennifer Horn 5438 to 1382. John Lynch to Joe Kenney 5607 to 1029. If every single Dartmouth student failed to vote, the GOP still would have been badly routed. "Regular" residents of Hanover are voting for Democrats because they're not buying what the Republicans have been offering for the past eight years.
But it's all the students' fault for that annoying voting they did. How dare they.
More: sdoyle in the comments demolishes what little was left of the argument: Vanessa won not just Hanover, but other towns like, Canaan, Easton, Enfield, Franconia, Hanover, Lebanon (All wards), Lyme, Orford, Plymouth. And every other town was a very close race. |
