School district moderator, active in town’s affairs since 1973, re-elected

Friday, March 12, 2010

BEDFORD – Ryk Bullock, the longtime school district moderator, won’t see his term end.

Bullock beat Town Councilor Michael Scanlon by a vote of 2,145-1,529 to maintain the three-year position.

“Being a moderator is not a part-time job,” Bullock said a few weeks before the election. “You have to be there when your constituents need you.”

For the three-year term School Board seat, Scott Earnshaw beat Bill Foote 2,202-1,332. Unopposed candidate Brenda Bernard was elected for the school district treasurer position with 3,113 votes, while Lori Radke, who also ran unopposed, was named school district clerk with 3,186 votes.

Bullock has been involved with the election process in Bedford since he was 17. In 1973, he was named the assistant school district and town moderator, and in 1993, he was elected to the school district moderator position.

While in the position, he helped decrease the wait time at the polls from 21⁄2 hours to 61⁄2 minutes, making Bedford the fastest processing location in the state.

As part of a statewide task force to enable physically challenged voters to vote independently, Bullock pushed Bedford to increase the number of stations for handicapped voters.

Another one of his accomplishments has been maintaining blood drives and bone marrow registries outside election sites. He plans to start an organ donation registry.

Bullock works with a staff of two senior assistant moderators and three assistant moderators.

“You don’t do it yourself – you’ve got to have a tremendous staff,” he said. “One person does not make this happen.”

Earnshaw ran on a goal of trimming the school district budget.

“My primary goal (is) to work closely with the district administration and the other members of the School Board to ensure that we are getting the highest quality for our tax dollars and to look for ways to reduce the budget,” he said.

Earnshaw, a 12-year resident of Bedford who spent seven years as one of the trustees of the trust funds, worked with four funds held on behalf of the school district.

A graduate of Columbia University Law School, Earnshaw is a solo practitioner attorney representing startup businesses in the area. He was a founding member of the Faith-Based Action Network of New Hampshire and has three children in the school district. One graduated last year.

Kelly McGrath can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 27, or kmcgrath@cabinet.com.