2019 - 2020 NH Democracy Legislative Scorecard

After a difficult year in 2019, where Governor Sununu vetoed all but two democracy reform-related bills, the pandemic-compressed 2020 session resulted in the killing of many democracy bills in lieu of emergency COVID-19 legislation.  Unfortunately, bills which could have aided registration and voting during the pandemic were killed as well.  The only bill Governor Sununu signed was a bill necessary for changes to the absentee ballot application and allowed preprocessing of absentee ballots prior to election day.

This Google Sheet allows you to sort any column in ascending or descending order.   Shortly, a tool allowing lookup by town will be implemented to aid constituents in looking up their state legislators.

[Go to the Scorecard]

What bills were included in the Scorecard?

While there were dozens of Democracy bills this term -- the most in recent history -- we unfortunately don't have legislators on the record for all of them, and many of those bills were killed before passing the NH House or Senate. Most of the bills included in our scorecard passed both the NH House and Senate and were sent to Governor Sununu, OR were attempts to override his vetoes.  Only HCR 5 was only approved by only one chamber.

Read a description and legislative history of the bills.

For the House Scorecard:        (Click on the Bill # to read the bill language)

For 2020 Legislation

• HB 1266 COVID-19 Voting Support
• HB 1665 Advisory Independent Redistricting Commission
• HB 1672 COVID-19 Voting Reform
• HB 1525 Organizations doing political advertising in NH must register and report their expenses

For 2019 Legislation

• HB 706 Independent Redistricting Commission
• HB 706 Veto Override Vote
• HB 105 Voting Rights Restoration
• HB 106 Voting Rights - Definitions of Domicile
• HB 106 Veto Override Vote
• HCR 5 Amendment to Overturn Citizens United
• HB 504  Veto Overide for the amended HB 504 resolution to overturn Citizens United and require fair redistricting, which passed both the House and Senate.

For the Senate Scorecard: 

For 2020 Legislation

• HB 1266 COVID-19 Voting Support
• HB 1665 Advisory Independent Redistricting Commission
• HB 1672 COVID-19 Voting Reform

For 2019 Legislation

• HB 105 Voting Rights Restoration
• HB 106 Voting Rights - Definitions of Domicile
• SB 7, Automatic Voter Registration at DMV
• SB 105, Transparency of Inaugural Committee Contributions
• SB 106, Requiring groups to register and report if political spending was $2500 or more.
• SB 106  Veto Override
• SB 156  Transparency:  Closed the LLC Loophole, allowing limited liability corporations to funnel anonymous dark moneyanonymous donations to campaigns
• HB 504,  Resolution to overturn Citizens United and require fair redistricting, which passed the House, was amended in the Senate, and passed Senate. 
• SB 206, Lobbying Reform - Prohibiting utility companies from spending ratepayer money for lobbying activity.

For the Governor's Scorecard:

For 2020 Legislation

• HB 1266 COVID-19 Voting Support
• HB 1665 Advisory Independent Redistricting Commission
• HB 1672 COVID-19 Voting Reform

For 2019 Legislation

• HB 706 Independent Redistricting Commission
• HB 105 Voting Rights Restoration
• HB 106 Voting Rights - Definitions of Domicile
• SB 105, Transparency of Inaugural Committee Contributions
• SB 106, Requiring groups to register and report if political spending was $2500 or more
• SB 156  Transparency:  Closed the LLC Loophole, allowing limited liability corporations to funnel anonymous dark moneyanonymous donations to campaigns
• HB 504,  Resolution to overturn Citizens United and require fair redistricting, which passed the House, was amended in the Senate, and passed Senate. 
• SB 206, Lobbying Reform - Prohibiting utility companies from spending ratepayer money for lobbying activity.

Why some bills and not others?

There are three types of votes taken by the legislature, but only one of which puts legislators on the record:  Roll call votes.

Roll Call Votes  For an important vote where the public is watching carefully, roll call votes put each legislator on the record as voting for or against a bill.  Roll call votes give us the most information as to who is, and is not, supporting Democracy legislation, and these votes are the basis for our NH Legislator Democracy Scorecard.  Veto Override votes, where a 2/3 majority is needed to be successful, are required by the NH Consititution to be roll call votes.  

Voice Votes   Voice votes are typically taken when a vote is not controversial and not expected to be close.  The chair makes a determination from the front of the room as to whether there are more Yeas than nays his or her judgment.   If it's too close to call, a roll call or division vote may be requested.   These are, unfortunately for the voters, NOT included in our scorecard.

Division Votes   If a bill is close, or particularly contentious, a division vote might be taken.   Unlike a voice vote, every vote is counted, but not tied to a particular legislator.   This gives cover to legislators who might vote for a bill that his or her constituents might not like, or where that legislator might vote against the party's position.   But in some cases, a division vote is to our advantage if it's close and we want bipartisan support for it to pass.  Unfortunately for the voters, division votes are NOT included in our scorecard.

Scoring methodology

The score that appears in the red column on the following pages represents a legislator's percentage of pro-reform votes. Because it is impossible to know why a legislator missed a particular vote, excused absences (A/E) and unexcused absences (A/U) were treated as anti-reform votes. Representatives with fewer than two recorded votes were not scored and show N/S in the score column

Scorecards from Previous Years

Read, download or print the 2017-2018 legislative biennium voting scorecard