BLC allows Strafford County commissioner to run where she doesn't live

Jul. 2—CONCORD — The state Ballot Law Commission rejected the pleas of leaders in the Republican-led Legislature to overlook a loophole it had mistakenly created with a 2023 election law (HB 75) that lets a Strafford County commissioner run for reelection in a district where she doesn't live.

By a 4-1 count, the BLC said it's clear the Legislature, when it split the three-person county commission into separate districts, meant to compel each one to live in the district where they will run.

But they failed at that time to tweak a 1979 law that set Strafford County apart as the only county in the state where all three commissioners need only live within county borders, not in their respective districts.

"We all agree with everybody this is a mistake; the question is whether we can do anything about it," said BLC Chairman Brad Cook near the outset of its meeting Tuesday.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Kevin Scura said the commission's authority extends only to deciding if candidates were qualified to run for the office they had sought.

"You do have to live in the county; but you do not want to live in the district. It is not a debate," Scura told the BLC about the status of the law regarding the election of Strafford County commissioners.

For decades, all voters in Carroll, Sullivan and Strafford Counties have been electing their three commissioners at large.

Unlike Strafford County, each of the three commissioners in Sullivan and Carroll Counties actually represents an individual district and must live within their boundaries.

Rep. Cliff Newton, R-Rochester, appealed to the BLC after Secretary of State David Scanlan had ruled County Commissioner Deanna Rollo of Rollinsford could run in a new District 3 even though she lived in District 2.

Newton is one of two GOP candidates running for that District 3 commission nomination in the Sept. 10 primary.

Strafford County is clearly a Democratic stronghold with three cities, but several of its 10 towns are Republican-leaning.

After narrowly holding onto the House majority in 2022, GOP leaders planned for months to find the right day on which to pass this bill splitting Strafford County into three districts.

The aim was twofold. First, to create a new GOP-leaning District 1 seat that Rep. Joe Pitre, R-Farmington, is running for this November against Rochester Democrat Tim Fontreau.

Second, to force all three Democratic incumbents, Chairman George Maglaras of Dover, Rollo, and the third commissioner, Robert Watson of Durham, to run against one another by putting them all in District 2.

Watson declined to run for a commission seat this fall.

Rollo filed in District 3.

Nobody opposing Chairman Maglaras

Republicans could not find a District 2 candidate to run against Maglaras, a 41-year incumbent on the commission, former mayor of Dover and a prominent Seacoast figure in many Democratic presidential campaigns.

The lawyer representing Rollo, Democratic Party Legal Counsel Bill Christie, said Tuesday that whatever lawmakers intended to do, the BLC must follow the law.

Rep. Robert Lynn, R-Windham and a retired Supreme Court chief justice, said sustaining this loophole could lead to unintended consequences that produce an "absurd or illogical result."

Sen. James Gray, Rochester, said at the 11th hour in June 2023, he had offered to House Democratic leaders a different map that would have put Rollo and Maglaras into separate districts, but they refused to support it.

Ultimately this final, flawed compromise passed the House in June 2023 by a single, unrecorded vote, 186-185.

"If Republicans keep control this November, I can tell you the first bill that will be filed," quipped BLC Chairman Cook.