Dartmouth ‘Teenybopper’ Wins County Treasury Position
While most politically ambitious students aim for summer internships on Capitol Hill, Democrat and Dartmouth junior Vanessa Sievers, perhaps wanting to be something more than your run-of-the-mill D.C. administrative lackey, decided to run for treasurer of Grafton County, N.H.
Sievers bested Republican incumbent Carol Elliott for the part-time position, winning 21,389 votes to Elliott’s 20,803 – a margin of 586 votes. Sievers’ victory testifies to the difference college students can have on an election. (According to the Valley News, “Sievers’ largest margin of victory was in Hanover, home to Dartmouth, where she defeated Elliott by 2,438 votes.”)
What is more fascinating than Sievers’ win, however, is the backlash it aroused from her competitor. In a post-election interview with the Valley News, Elliott, who is 68, surmised that her loss came from “‘brainwashed’ college students who voted for the Democratic ticket and asserted that most ‘real people’ backed her candidacy.” She also referred to Sievers as a “teenybopper”, which is not only ageistic but imprecise – Sievers is 20.
