AG Looking Into Mont Vernon Voting Records?

Well, it seems that Mr. O'Brien knew of what he spoke when (3.00 / 1)

he identified young voters as unreliable. Of course, in typical conservative fashion, he seems not to have done anything to correct the "oversight." Just mouth-flappin' is all.

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by: hannah @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 12:42:55 PM UTC

il pesce puzza dalla testa n/t (0.00 / 0)

note to close readers: this might be sarcastic so think twice before reading to candidates for use in their attacks on each other

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by: JonnyBBad @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 13:46:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The chickens keep coming home to roost (3.75 / 4)

but does the public "get it" yet?

There's no way to know really, but if Bob wins the special election it would be a refreshing sign.

( right now my faith in voters is at an all time low.)  

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by: Chaz Proulx @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 15:44:07 PM UTC

I don't think the blind followers ever will (3.50 / 2)

These are the same types of people who tried to change Paul Revere and John Quincy Adams' wiki page to make the distorted versions of history spouted by Palin and Bachmann out to be true.

"We start working to beat these guys right now." -Jed Bartlet

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by: cblodg @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 15:51:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Portsmouth Herald story is good... (4.00 / 2)

http://www.seacoastonline.com/...

Have you told a stranger today about Bill O'Brien and his Tea Party agenda? The people of NH deserve to hear about O'Brien  and his majority committed to destroying New Hampshire and remaking it into a armed survivalist preserve.  

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by: Ray Buckley @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 15:51:23 PM UTC

When People Used To Say To Me... (4.00 / 1)

..."like father, like son," I was expecially proud since my Dad was a hard-working lobster fisherer, painter, union member, union official, and NH State Representative who cared about working men and women, children's health care, women's rights, senior citizens, diversity, equality, and human rights.  He understood our NH and US Constitutions, and the words "...with liberty and justice for all."

No particular observation meant.  I'm just saying.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 00:29:41 AM UTC

As I understand this story (0.00 / 0)

1. Brendan registered as a voter for the first time, in Mont Vernon NH.
2. Brendan voted in Mont Vernon.
3. Brendan went off to college in Maine and registered to vote there. (He didn't "unregister" in NH - there is no such standard process.)  He should have reported that he was previously registered in Mont Vernon, NH.
4. The Maine election officials should, perhaps, have sent a notification to Mont Vernon NH that Brendan had now registered in Maine.
5. The Mont Vernon election officials, perhaps, should then have removed his name from the Mon Vernon checklist.
6. Brendan voted in Maine in 2009.
7. Brendan voted in Mont Vernon in 2010, without re-registering.

There is no accusation that Brendan voted twice, in different precincts, in the same cycle.

If anything is wrong here, it appears to be in Step 4 or 5: either Maine didn't notify Mont Vernon of the new registration, or Mont Vernon didn't update the checklist.

My first reaction to the whole thing is: Don't go after the checklist workers, who are generally volunteers and non-partisan. But it was New Boston where the checklist workers posted the voter suppression signs...  

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by: elwood @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 10:55:31 AM UTC

But it was New Boston where the checklist workers posted the voter suppression signs... (4.00 / 1)

And where Brendan O'Brien's mother was and continues to be a supervisor of the checklist.  I find it very hard to believe that Mrs. O'Brien didn't know of her son's intention to run for political office in Maine, and as such that he was a registered voter there.  I doubt that there's an malfeasance here, just a good example of rampant hypocrisy on the part of Speaker O'Brien.

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by: FrankLloydMike @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 12:09:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Points (4.00 / 2)

Two points:
1. This is a classic case of IOIYAAR. Speaker Bill O'Brien has railed against liberal college students voting in the communites where they attend school, but, within his conservative family, it is okay.

2. Republicans love to say, for example, we don't need new laws for crimes committed with firearems, we just need to enforce the laws we have. Here is a very simple law, and a very simple procedure, to stop someone from being registered to vote in two different communities, but it was not enforced with respect to the son of a NH state representative.

   



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 12:30:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

another possible take (0.00 / 0)

maybe he comes down so hard on the kids, through law, because his own son won't listen to him and does just what dad hates...so this is how N'Obrien gets back at his kid...I'll show you jr.

note to close readers: this might be sarcastic so think twice before reading to candidates for use in their attacks on each other

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by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 17:26:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ran in ME, then voted in NH? (0.00 / 0)

Let us not forget that Brendan O'Brien also RAN in the Maine Primary for State Representative from District 73.  That primary was held on June 8, 2010. That means he was holding himself out as a Maine resident at that time. He then appears to have VOTED in the NH General Election in November of 2010.

Brendan O'Brien also continues to be listed as the Chairman of the Maine College Republicans.  


The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. --Marcus Aurelius, courtesy of Paul Berch

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by: Lucy Weber @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 16:09:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

still lives in Maine (0.00 / 0)

Brendan O'Brien's facebook page is largely accessible to the public.  It says he is attending the University of Maine School of Law and still lives in Lewiston.  

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 16:19:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The Union Leader article (0.00 / 0)

cited in the diary above refers to the Maine Primary as having been in 2009.  Unless I am reading the Maine Secretary of State's web site cited I'm my comment above incorrectly, The Primary in which Brendan O'Brien is listed as a candidate was held in June, 2010.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. --Marcus Aurelius, courtesy of Paul Berch

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by: Lucy Weber @ Thu Aug 04, 2011 at 16:20:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

O'Brien voting issue (0.00 / 0)

From the Union Leader:
"Speaker O'Brien's wife Roxanne is one of three supervisors of the checklist who handle voter registration matters. State law requires local election officials to take specific steps to notify officials in a voter's previous town of a change in registration."

I can see how this may have been missed except for the fact that Brendan O'Brien's mother and Bill O'B's wife, is a supervisor of the checklist in Mont Vernon.

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by: VanF. @ Wed Aug 31, 2011 at 02:53:40 AM UTC