By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

For better or worse, the official ballot law, commonly know as SB2, took effect a decade ago.

Proponents of the system, in which all town or school district’s warrant articles are voted on by ballot, say the higher voter turnout more accurately reflects the will of the people.

Opponents of SB2 say the low turnouts at Town Meeting and School District Meeting deliberative sessions mean few voters are actually informed as they head to the polls.

Candia now has the best – or, if one is a pessimist, worst – of both worlds.

At March’s election, voters overwhelmingly voted to adopt SB2 for Candia’s Town Meeting, by a count of 603-437-281.

Mysteriously missing from the school district ballot, however, was a proposal to change the School District Meeting to SB2, despite the best efforts of resident Viktor Nafranowicz.

Nafranowicz, who said he hates public meetings, has been trying to turn Candia on to SB2 for two years, and has only half succeeded.

Now he, and at least 39 other petitioners, are perturbed that voters didn’t get to weigh in on SB2 for the school district side this year.

Nafranowicz circulated petitions in 2005 that called for SB2. Though the petitions had the proper number of signatures, both were thrown out at the annual meetings because of incorrect wording. So Nafranowicz started anew this year.

He collected signatures for the two petitions – one being for the school district, and the other for the town – and submitted them to the town offices, where Nafranowicz was again informed that the wording was incorrect. Officials also informed Nafranowicz that they couldn’t accept the school district petition, which must be accepted by either the school board or one of its members.

Running out of time, and a bit annoyed, Nafranowicz recruited SB2 supporters working at Candia’s Mobil station, who quickly collected 39 signatures for each of the petitions. Only 25 signatures are needed.

The deadline for the school petition came on a Friday in February, at 5 p.m. On that day, Nafranowicz went to the home of Candia School Board Chairman Ed Caito.

Caito wasn’t home, and Nafranowicz enlisted the help of Caito’s high school son. Nafranowicz, employing his young daughter as a witness, asked the young man to sign for the receipt of the petition, and asked him to deliver it to Caito.

More than a month after Election Day, Nafranowicz discovered the petition never made the school district ballot.

“It turns out (Caito) never turned it in,” said Nafranowicz. “I want a new vote. This is not right.”

Nafranowicz said he feels like too much is required of residents hoping to get petitions on the ballot.

“It sucks because this is the third time I’ve tried to do this,” he said.

Caito, who first saw the petition upon returning home from work well after the 5 p.m. deadline, said he hadn’t a clue what to make of it.

“I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out how I was supposed to know that I was supposed to do something with it as a school board member.”

Caito said the petition wasn’t accompanied by an envelope, any type of instructions, or any contact information.

“I saw it as a petition for me to sign, not to do something with,” he said. “It was just a piece of paper.”

Caito said he left the mysterious petition on his kitchen counter.

Upon finding that the petition didn’t make the ballot, Nafranowicz contacted local police, who directed him to the state attorney general’s office.

Representatives from that office told him he would have to file a formal complaint in order to spark any kind of investigation. But Nafranowicz said he hopes not to go down that road.

“I don’t want to file any complaint,” said Nafranowicz. “This is something for the town to work out.”

But, said Nafranowicz, “We need to have an SB2 vote for the school now.”

Nafranowicz, and at least 39 other Candia residents, may be disappointed.

New Hampshire Assistant Secretary of State Karen Ladd said state statutes clearly spell out that any citizen’s petition for the school district ballot must be in the hands of the filing agent – a school board member, or the board as a whole – no later than the filing deadline.

“You cannot miss the deadline,” said Ladd.

Caito said he regrets the circumstances surrounding the lost school district petition.

“I consider this regrettable and unfortunate,” he said. “But I’m not sure how I could have interpreted that as anything other than a piece of paper.”