Published: 3/29/2019 12:01:16 AM
New Hampshire voters and elected state senators have a rare opportunity to effect positive change to our system of electoral government: Vote to end the divisive gerrymandering of voting districts in New Hampshire.
Gerrymandering is the process by which the political party in control after the decennial census (next in 2020) has power to establish voting district boundaries in a manner to ensure their party prevails when it comes to future elections and the corrosive results emanating therefrom.
But there is now corrective action pending to fix this problem, and your help can make it happen. House Bill 706, passed recently by the House of Representatives with a strong 95-vote margin, creates for the first time a balanced, bipartisan independent commission to redraw voting district boundaries. During the House vote, the only argument offered by the minority against the measure was the state constitution requires redistricting be the providence of the Legislature. In fact, the final recommendation of the independent commission must be adopted by both the N.H. House and Senate.
HB 706 soon goes to the N.H. Senate. Call your senator now and tell them to vote yes on HB 706.
The present process of gerrymandering doesn’t work; it perpetuates the fires of partisan fighting, undermines the democratic process and marginalizes the truth of one person, one vote. There is no good reason to not pass HB 706.
JIM HOWARD
Concord