Never vote to sell your right to vote. Your right to vote should be as sacred as free speech and bearing arms. The latter shall not be infringed. Unfortunately, there are some people who have no problem with your right to vote being infringed. Sadly, lots of them are the kind of voters who show up each and every time it’s time to vote, and they fill out the whole ballot, including the ballot questions.
It was a 2019 ballot question that infringed on every Nashua voter’s right to vote because the NTU’s useful idiots on speed dial came out in droves to vote yes, and special elections were abolished. TikTok artist Allison Dyer usually finishes her montages by reminding the viewers that elections have consequences, and indeed they do!
Readers might find mid-May an unusual time to write such an article, but my inspiration comes from the news of Alderman Jim Ravan’s installation on Wednesday night. That’s right, he was not elected; he was installed by the city’s ruling class.
Ravan, Rep Elberger’s husband, was former Ward 1 Alderman Tyler Gouveia’s opponent in 2023 and did not run again in 2025, even though it became what one would call an “open seat.” Tyler ran at large in the last election, a fatal decision I could say more about in a separate article, and Hailey Gallagher (who lost 945-982) was the correct candidate to replace Tyler. Sadly, her opponent, Mr. Chess, won that race and resigned shortly after being sworn in. There’s also much to say about the debatable worthiness of Mr. Chess, not just because he’s part of the enemy camp, but also about his personal obligations and ability to serve, which is something for another article.
Mr. Chess’s resignation created the most recent of multiple vacancies since the abolition of special elections. Former Ward 7 Alderman, Jonathan Cathey, who was elected as an independent in 2021, resigned before 2023, and his swamp rat predecessor, June Caron, was installed to fill that seat.
I remember the 2019 ballot question being peddled to the voters in the name of saving the city the expense of administering special elections, supposedly about $40G. The useful idiots voted to sell everyone’s right to vote for $40G, but most, or perhaps all of them, supported the construction of a new middle school for over $100M! Make that make sense!
At the time I cast my NO vote on that ballot question, I didn’t look into its genesis, but I took a renewed interest, though I have since “marked myself safe from city hall” over a year ago. I asked some of the remaining locals if they remembered the details, and Doris quipped that the 2018 school special election had an astoundingly low voter turnout.
The population of Nashua is about 90,000, and about 1900 bothered to vote. It would be a reasonable guess to surmise that most of them had ties to the schools in one way or another. With that much voter apathy on full display, it’s not hard to see how emboldened city hall became. I should point out to readers that, unlike Manchester, Nashua’s school elections are citywide. A Ward 1 alderman race is not. Furthermore, while school board seats are certainly important, an alderman’s seat is even more important, way too important to be letting people you didn’t vote for choose yours for you!
Back to some “gun talk,” which happens to be relevant to this discussion. I took that F&G Outdoorswoman weekend at Rockywold-Deephaven camps, and one of the gun-class instructors made a parting comment at quitting time, something like, “once a right is gone, it’s practically impossible to get it back.” The same words can be applied to voting.
Nashua voters have a better chance of winning the lottery than the reinstatement of special elections. Consider this matter a warning to all Granite Staters, in cities and towns alike. And as Allison always says, elections have consequences.
