Till
She is probably a wonderful woman caught up in a confusing situation – or not.
Derry Town Moderator Mary Till has been given a stern letter from Secretary of State Bill Gardner for election law violations. She is a Democrat.
(Publisher’s Note: Click here for our story, including the letter to Till from the AG’s Office.)
I have not looked at all the details in this case but is smells of something we at the Coalition of NH Taxpayers have been aware of for a long, long time.
Here is how the scheme goes. See if it fits.
Till “audited” a race in the NH Primary by checking cast ballots during the election. Sounds innocent enough but it gives the moderator an upper hand in some elections, such as bond votes.
If a moderator can simply go to the voting machine and take out ballots that were dropped into a separate box by the machine because they had a mechanical problem, that moderator can tell how the vote is going. In the case of a bond vote he can get on a phone or tip someone off to start calling for more voters if a school bond he wants to pass, for instance, is going south. You can watch during some bond votes and see the flurry of activity after the moderator checks the ballots in an informal “audit” and call supporters to start dragging people who did not vote yet to the polls. Since the availability of cell phones this is a powerful tool for activist moderators.
Now was Moderator Till in Derry just nosey about who was winning and have enough time on her hands to snoop around while people were still voting or is she an activist moderator?
Did anyone see Moderator Till spending time on her phone while doing her internal, informal, personal audit?
That is what Gardner should be looking for.
Publisher’s Note: Mary Till is the Town Moderator in Derry and a candidate for state representative.
