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Activist says write-in votes for Leonard Peltier not counted
Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Activist says write-in votes for Leonard Peltier not counted

ANTRIM, N.H. (AP) — An activist says write-in votes for an imprisoned
American Indian leader were not counted in the state’s presidential primary.
Shelley Nelkins, a member of the New Hampshire Leonard Peltier Support
Group, wrote in Peltier’s name to bring attention to his cause.
  Peltier was convicted of murder after two FBI agents died in a 1975
shootout between federal agents and the American Indian Movement at the Pine
Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
  AIM has long claimed Peltier was framed for the killings because he was a
prominent Indian leader. Peltier filed a pardon request in 1995 after losing
numerous court appeals. He is in federal prison in Kansas.
Nelkins and other members of the support group wrote in Peltier’s name on
their ballots in the Feb. 1 primary.
But Robert Flanders, Antrim’s town moderator, said he did not count Nelkens’
vote because he had never heard of Peltier. Towns are required to report all
write-in votes unless they refer to fictional characters.
"Unfortunately, the name didn’t mean anything to me," Flanders said. "I did
not know she was running a write-in campaign for him."
  Nelkens also said Keene failed to forward her son’s write-in vote for
Peltier to the secretary of state’s office in Concord.
  She also believes Nashua officials failed to tally write-in votes for
Peltier, although officials in Lee reported two votes for him there.

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http://www.fosters.com/news2000aa/feb_00/16/nh021k.htm
© 2000 Geo. J. Foster Co.

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