CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Candidates who start signing up for New Hampshire’s 100th presidential primary next week can do so at the desk of the man who started it all.
In 1913, Rep. Stephen Bullock traveled by horse and buggy from his Richmond farm to Concord to propose a bill creating the primary. The Legislature passed it that spring, and after some tweaking of the law two years later, the first presidential primary was a held in March 1916.
On Thursday, Bullock’s desk – adorned with his straw hat, pipe and kerosene lamp – was unveiled at the secretary of state’s office, where candidates sign paperwork and pay $1,000 to get on the ballot. It was given to the state by Bullock’s great-granddaughter to honor a man who received no recognition for his place in political history during his lifetime. She knew nothing of his role until the 1990s when Secretary of State Bill Gardner contacted another relative while researching his book about the primary.
“I was 9 years old when Grampa Bullock died, so I do remember him, but we never knew anything about all this with the presidential legislation,” said Sybil Dupuis, of Wells, Maine.
Thursday’s gathering also included the grandson of former President Grover Cleveland. George Cleveland showed off the ballot boxes New Hampshire distributed for the 1892 election his grandfather won. The ballot boxes, which originally contained mechanism to count each ballot as it was fed into the machine, are still in use by dozens of towns, Gardner said.