They say if you run for elected office you had better have a thick skin. In fact that was said to me several times in the past when I ran for school board.
Last night I posted and article ‘How Progressives Won the School Culture War—in New Hampshire!‘ on the TownUnderground Facebook page and I asked two questions the first ‘Are we now past the point of local elections being ‘non-partisan‘ ?’ and the second ‘I heard most of your candidates left before they called the winners. Is that a rumor?’
The first question was due to the clearly partisan school board race in town. Boths political parties took sides and recommended candidates. The Democrat list is here posted on Marc 7 and the Republicans posted their list here. After the election several progressive groups took credit for electing candidates or across the state.
Londonderry School District Election Information
Pro-Public Education School Board Candidates Win All Across New Hampshire in Record-Shattering Turnout
The second question was in response to what some people seem to think is some sort of rigged election. The rumor was that a number of candidates left the polls 45 minute before the election result were called. Some said it was an indication that they did not need to stay because they already knew the results. As I had stated on other Facebook pages and in private conversations my opinion was that this was false. Shortly after the ballot machine counts were completed several people counting were seen on their cell phones either talking or texting. Given the rumor I said it was my opinion that some individuals may have made calls or texts about the potential results, that was merely my opinion, for all I know they could have been checking at home after a long 14+ hour day. It was my opinion that there was ZERO election tampering. Even if calls were made it’s not illegal.
Today the post gained a bit more attention from newly elected school board member Amanda Butcher where she has accused me of slander and defamation. Below are screen shots of the comments
Let’s break this one down. The night of the election I was inside the gym standing with my back to the glass doors. Amanda and others were outside the gym behind me. Amanda tried to make eye contact? If she wanted to say hello she could have approached my but did not. Now comes the accusation of slander, what did I post that was slanderous? Amanda goes on to state that I shared information about her sister and accused her of a crime. This is a complete false statement, I never posted anything on the page concerning her sister or and crime. Amanda also did not contact me about any information that could be found at town hall.
Amanda response to is that by questioning if candidates left that is somehow slander and accusing her of a crime? As stated earlier I was unaware that any candidates had left while the counting was going on. In fact while the results were being read I was recording the proceedings watching the camera, so I would be unable to see what was going on outside the gym. When the rumor came up the following day I was surprised that people would stay at the polls for 14 hours and leave, but I have know candidates in the past that did not want to stay to hear the results. At no time did Amanda contact me about information of the location of here sister on 3/8.
Jump forward a few hours. Amanda accuses me of deleting comments. This again is a completely false statement, no comments were deleted, if comments were it was by individuals commenting on the post. There were 83 responses at the time of this writing. Amanda now jumps to the claim of criminal defamation again stating that I shared information about her that was inaccurate and I failed to verify the information. Again no statements were made by me toward Amanda Butcher in this post, no information was shared other than the article posted.
There was an individual who posted a comment with an image with the following text:
Hi All! I’m not in Londonderry but I have on good authority that newly “elected” Amanda had a family member involved in the count. Just thought you guys should know. Took a Screenshot of my reply from Twitter to Freedom603
This image was NOT shared by me. The image was posted at 2:21 PM and as is my general practice I rarely respond to comments during working hours. I will say that several individuals sent the same or similar images through private message to the page last night. I responded to those statements:
‘I don’t know the details other than LHS Associates is the company that NH contracts with to supply voting machines’
None of those images sent were posted. I research images before posting and certainly would not post a screenshot received from an unknown individual.
In other groups I have stated that even if a family member worked for LHS Associates, it would not be a conflict of interest and at no time did I accuse anyone of a crime.
So to our newly elected school board member ‘if you run for elected office you had better have a thick skin’. This election cycle was very divise, to start off you new tenure attacking a resident with allegations of slander and defamation, is not a good optic. Nothing that I posted was slanderous or defamatory. In the future I suggest that you choose your words a bit more carefully.
Glenn Douglas
Londonderry resident.