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Make your voice heard

By Staff | Sep 9, 2018

We, members of The Telegraph Editorial Board, enthusiastically endorse the constitutional right to vote.

We urge you, our readers, to exercise that right during the 2018 New Hampshire primary election on Tuesday.

At the top of the ballot, on the Democratic side, voters will pick either former state senator Molly Kelly or former Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand to face Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in the November general election, while Sununu faces no primary opposition.

Marchand’s platform calls for full government funding of abortion with absolutely no restrictions, while Kelly wants to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. Both candidates favor legalizing recreational marijuana, while working to end the opioid epidemic.

A review of Kelly’s website lists some of her other priorities as follows:

stopping vouchers for private or religious schools;

ensuring paid family and medical leave for all employees; and

overturning the voter residency requirement laws, commonly known as SB 3 and HB 1264.

For Marchand, other priorities include:

banning “military-style” weapons, while enforcing “universal” background checks for gun purchases;

allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses; and

allowing undocumented immigrants and their children to attend public colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates.

Neither U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., nor U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., faces re-election in 2018. U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., does not have a primary challenger, while U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., is not seeking re-election.

Republicans will choose one of seven candidates to challenge Kuster in November: Steve Negron, Robert Burns, Brian Belanger, Stewart Levenson, Lynne Blankenbeker, Jay Mercer or Gerard Beloin.

Democrats running for the seat Shea-Porter will vacate include Naomi Andrews, Paul Cardinal, Mark MacKenzie, William Martin, Deaglan McEachern, Mindi Messmer, Terence O’Rourke, Chris Pappas, Levi Sanders, Lincoln Soldati and Maura Sullivan. On the GOP side, Andy Sanborn and Eddie Edwards are considered the main contenders.

Not to be left out, there are also several Libertarians running. For the gubernatorial nomination, Aaron Day faces Jilletta Jarvis. In the race for Kuster’s seat, Libertarians will choose from Tom Alciere and Justin O’Donnell.

No matter your political leanings – liberal, conservative, “outsider,” or somewhere in the middle – do not let Election Day pass without participating in the grand experiment of representative government.

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