On January 10th, I was one of several dozen citizens who testified at the Senate Committee on Redistricting. We offered testimony on four bills coming out of the committee: Majority (R) and Minority (D) proposed maps for both the NH Senate districts and for the Executive Council districts. Four maps total, two Republican and two Democrat. Many of us were also aware that in each case a third independently drawn map was available through the Map-a-Thon: Granite Staters Drawing Fair Voting Maps. It’s an interesting exercise to go to the Map-a-Thon website and pull down the maps to make a side by side comparison of the three versions.
On January 11th, I open my Concord Monitor. Five pages in I found a two-column story running just 27 words over the limit for this Letter to the Editor. It was a recycled story from the New Hampshire Bulletin that concluded with this out-of-date information: “Open Democracy expects to complete its analysis of both the Republican and Democratic maps by Thursday. A hearing will be held in Representatives Hall at the State House on Jan. 10.” Last week’s news! It’s disappointing to see the Concord Monitor offering such lazy journalism, especially with so much at stake. You could be doing a lot to inform the public about the redistricting process, the proposed maps and what the criteria are behind them. They will shape our state for the next decade.
Kate Coon
Peterborough