Family, friends and supporters crowded into the Executive Council Chamber in the State House Tuesday to witness New Hampshire’s four electors cast their votes for President and Vice President during this public ceremony. PAULA TRACY photo
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Four New Hampshire women: one who is transgender, an immigrant from Venezuela, an Indian American and an African American pledged the state’s four Electoral College votes for Vice President Kamala Harris to be President of the United States and Tim Walz vice president at a ceremony on Tuesday.
Though the nation chose former President Donald Trump as its next President, New Hampshire voters chose Harris and Walz on Nov. 5.
In this winner-take-all-state, the official vote was 418,488 for Harris with Trump receiving 395,523 votes.
Chosen as electors by Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley for the honor to represent those votes cast for Harris and Walz was the Honorable Eva Castillo-Turgeon of Manchester, a spokesman for the Queen City’s immigrant community, the Honorable Latha Mangipudi of Nashua a State Representative, the Honorable Gerri Cannon of Somersworth, and the Honorable Jackie Weatherspoon of Exeter.
Weatherspoon is a former state Representative who worked hard with others to get New Hampshire to finally pass Martin Luther King-Civil Rights Day.
After a Democratic primary in the state which had no top of the ticket candidate on the ballot, with President Joe Biden not supportive of the state going first and some Democratic leaders saying New Hampshire is not racially representative of the country, Buckley chose the diverse group for their life stories in New Hampshire.
The process for Democrats in New Hampshire involves the chair of the party bringing four names to the state convention which they ratified in May at Dover High School, and those electors pledged to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote.
Asked how he chose the four, Buckley said “women have been under attack, assaulted by the Supreme Court’s decision on the reversal of Roe,” noting the Dobbs decision, which returned to the states the power to decide a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
“‘The trans community, the Asian community, the Latino community and the Black community have also been under assault from hate and divisive language over the last couple years. And we thought it very important that New Hampshire send a very strong message across the country that one, we respect our women, we respect our trans community, we respect our Asian community and our Black community. I think this is probably a first in the country and we are very proud. It was a very emotional moment for many of us,” Buckley said.
This electoral process was repeated in states across the country, but it needed to be done Tuesday as a part of the peaceful transfer of power which is in the Constitution.
The process will be completed in January when Congress certifies the election including these four votes.
New Hampshire has a law that states that it will go first in holding the first-in-the-nation primary but it was not supported by the national Democratic party.
While the future of whether or not New Hampshire will remain the first-in-the-nation to host a Democratic primary remains up in the air, the faces of the state’s four voters and their stories were on display for the nation to see.
Gov. Chris Sununu, an outgoing Republican, was there to formalize and authenticate the process by stamping wax seals on the votes, which are now headed to Washington.
He has overseen two of these events and said it was unlike the 2020 electoral process when COVID-19 precluded an audience.
New Hampshire is a little different and “a hell of a lot better than anyone else,” said Sununu. “It starts with the most representative body of government in the world. Right? Four hundred House members for only 1.4 million people. Anybody can kind of run for anything. Always maintaining one of the highest voter turnouts in the country,” he said. He noted that voter confidence here is among the highest.
The four electors all got a chance to tell a little bit about their life experience and the importance of New Hampshire and the moment for them.
Gerri Cannon said she grew up in a world where people conformed and boys were expected to grow into strong men and fathers. Girls were expected to grow to become homemakers and have children.
But things became more “complex” over time. More people came out as who they were.
“Some women love other women and some girls grow up to be strong men and some boys like myself grow up to be beautiful, intelligent women. Our world is not a perfect place. We are all unique with different strengths, weaknesses and skills. When I was a teenager, I knew I was different. I kept my secret safe in a closet. I didn’t open that closet door until I learned there were more people like me. I didn’t know what would happen to me or how people would react. We live in a state where our motto is ‘Live Free or Die,’ I decided to find out if it really is,” she said.
Castillo-Turgeon was next and said she appreciated representing the state’s immigrant community in the historic vote.
“This is where my bones will be buried,” she said of New Hampshire. “We’re divided. We have been for many years of hatred, many years of intolerance, many years of hiding. We have focused so much on what makes us different, who we love, what language we speak, what color we are, what religion we profess, that we have lost sight of our commonality, our common humanity.
“And we are injured right now. It is going to take a while to really make that pledge not an aspiration but a reality. And we are going to have to start working very hard to ensure that we begin accepting each other for that God-given right of dignity. And that is the only way we are going to make this a reality by all working together, making this really the country that it should be. Make the pledge of Allegiance not a statement but an actual action,” she said. The candidates Harris and Walz “represent my values.”
Mangipudi followed.
She said she was humbled by the honor and proud to vote for Harris and Walz.
She said the “dream still lives on. But we have to make it a reality.”
Mangipudi said she is proud to be the first Indian American to be elected to office in New Hampshire, “a woman, a brown and a first generation immigrant” who also introduced her grandson.
Weatherspoon, who is Black, said her husband brought her to live in the very white town of Exeter and while at first a little concerned, she was welcomed.
She brought other community members to the event in the Executive Council Chamber of the State House Tuesday.
“It’s the local people, like the governor said, it’s you neighbors, it’s those that you work with, it’s all the students here,” she said. “So I just want to thank you all for this honor. For the honor of working on the Harris campaign. My husband who is here, of course, was with me as we partied last week at the Blair House (vice president’s mansion) to thank her. She did a miracle that was only 107 days. And what did she pull off? She pulled off joy. She pulled us together as a country. She pulled in hope. She did not make it across the finish line. But from the Pettus Bridge to New Hampshire, we will continue to overcome it. We will continue, not only to have that dream but we are the dream. And that is the joy that I have…,” she said.
“What does New Hampshire mean to me? It means that I have a voice. That I can be at the table,” Weatherspoon said.
Secretary of State David Scanlan provided the oaths that were taken and then the four elected their leadership and job responsibilities before they voted with two ballots, one for president and one for vice president.
Then the secretary read the results which was four votes for Harris and four votes for Walz and then the process included using a lighter which Scanlan used to light candles for each elector to drop wax onto the special paper. That was followed by Sununu who used a stamp of the State of New Hampshire to press onto the wax puddles.
And the documents headed out the doors to Washington.
