State Says 'No' To Granny D, 'Yes' To Rip

[Freddie Stubbs]

Law Forbids Nicknames On Ballots Without Exemption

POSTED: 10:16 am EDT July 12, 2004
UPDATED: 5:46 pm EDT July 12, 2004

CONCORD, N.H. -- If you want to vote for "Granny D" in New Hampshire this fall, you'll have to put an X next to the name Doris Haddock.

The state Ballot Law Commission Monday denied Haddock's request to appear on the ballot in her U.S. Senate race by her nickname, Granny D. That's what she was known by when she made her highly publicized walk across the country a few years to ago boost campaign finance reform.

The commission said state Rep. Randolph Holden can go on the ballot as Rip Holden, and candidate Janet Hammond can be listed as Jill. It said they have been known by those nicknames for most, if not all of their lives.

The commission found that Haddock's nickname is more a term of endearment and not a name by which she has been known for most of her life.

more: http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/wnne/3519822/detail.html

[Bluebear]

1. Sounds fishy to me. Sh-doom-bah!

GO GRANNY!

[FightinNewDem]

2. Sloppy statute, correct interpretation

No, it's really not fishy. The law is dumb and poorly crafted, but it is the law, and the Secretary of State (a Democrat, by the way) is probably not out of line on this one.

[JeniB]

3. Maybe not out of line but...

Granny D is most well known by that name. To not let her use it is to confuse people who know her only by that name. Isn't there any way that they can at least put Granny D in parenthesis behind her name?