Despite Conviction Former GOP director won't lose right to vote in N.H.

• Originally published by the Associated Press on 8/23/2004

A former state Republican Party official who tried to stop Democrats from getting to the polls two years ago won't lose his right to vote under New Hampshire's constitution.

Chuck McGee, the party's former executive director, pleaded guilty last month to jamming Democratic phone banks on Election Day 2002.

The state's constitution contains a provision that disenfranchises anyone convicted of violating state or federal election laws. But Secretary of State William Gardner has ruled that McGee pleaded guilty to federal statues that are "generally" criminal offenses, not election law violations.

His ruling was in response to a letter from David Fischer, a state prison inmate who unsuccessfully challenged his own loss of voting rights while incarcerated. Fischer had asked for clarification of how the provision applied to McGee.

McGee could lose his right to vote under other laws. He's expected to be sentenced in October. If he must serve time in prison, then he won't be allowed to vote while behind bars.

McGee was accused of arranging to have hundreds of hang-up calls made to phone lines installed to help voters get rides to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002. Among the contests decided that day was the close U.S. Senate race in which Republican Rep. John Sununu beat outgoing Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

McGee, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make anonymous calls with the intent to "annoy or harass" the recipients, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

McGee admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing firm that hired another vendor to call Democratic Party offices in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and Claremont. Phone lines at the Manchester firefighters' union also were affected.

Allen Raymond, the former president of GOP Marketplace in Alexandria, Va., pleaded guilty June 30 to hiring another firm, Milo Enterprises of Idaho, to make the calls.

A small group of Democrats protested outside the courthouse on the day McGee pleaded guilty. Several held signs reading "Chuck McGee and the GOP jammed my right to vote."