Blevens denied petitioning access, files for justice

U.S. Senate candidate Ken Blevens has filed a complaint with the New Hampshire Attorney General.

The four towns mentioned in this complaint have refused or tried to regulate the process of obtaining nomination papers.

The town of Deerfield allowed Congressional Candidate Howard Wilson and myself to petition unregulated for two days, June 5^th and June 8^th. On Thursday June 10^th mid-afternoon a demand was made that I could no longer obtain nominations at the recycling center. The person who made the demand was Selectman and member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives John Reagan. One of the recycling attendants brought my attention to the license plate on John Reagan’s car and suggested his authority. The legislative license plate read Assistant Republican Leader 2.

I suggested to Mr. Reagan that I had a copy of the law that allowed candidates to obtain nominations unregulated. He refused to look at or acknowledge the law and threatened to call the police and have me arrested if I didn’t leave. I said I would not leave, that I had a statutory right to be there. Mr. Reagan then tried to call the police on his cell phone without success. He then made a snide remark and left. I remained at the recycling center for 20-30 minutes and because it started to rain, I decided I would leave.

Pittsfield, Candia, Bedford, and now Deerfield all cited safety as their reasoning for not allowing the collecting of nominations from town voters under RSA 655:40.

If in fact safety was the issue it would apply equally to the residents using the facility on a weekly basis. Based simply on use, a resident using the recycling center 52 times in a year would be at a much greater risk than a candidate being there 3 times over a 2-year cycle. Regarding a second issue, the holding up of traffic, as I have found in the facilities where we are allowed, it is detrimental for the candidate to create ill will of potential signers. Therefore we do not restrict traffic flow.

Compare this with the towns of Canterbury, Boscawen, Dunbarton, Hopkinton, Webster, and Warner whom have all be very helpful in the process of obtaining nominations.

The questions that need to be answered regarding this complaint are as follows:

Who is responsible for carrying out the mandate of Chapter 31: 102-a?

Secretary of State William Gardner has said the Attorney General would be the enforcing agency, is he correct? Will the office of the Attorney General carry out the mandate of Chapter 31:102-a and notify the towns that the statute is the law?

Who is responsible for providing the constitutional mandate in Part I Article11 regarding equal right to be elected into office?

Will the Office of the Attorney General provide and enforce the constitutional protection of equality for all “candidates” in all towns?

Copies of the complaint form and letter are attached below. This story has also been reported in Ballot Access News: New Hampshire Libertarians File Formal Complaint Over Denial of Access for Petitioning on Public Property.