Action Needed Now -- The vote in the NH House is March 11, 2020

Instructions

Thank you for making phone calls to make your NH town's voting districts fair from gerrymandering manipulation.

Most Democratic State reps support an independent redistricting commission, most Republicans have voted against it.    Before you call, here's some background on the bill.  At the bottom of the page, there are linkts to scripts for you to base your calls on.

Important Information About HB 1665

The current bill, HB 1665, is an "advisory" bill, which makes the maps in an open & transparent way, with public hearings, then makes recommendations to the legislature.   Like last year's bill, the commission is created by the legislative leaders, who recommend 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans, but each side has the opportunity to object to those members, like in the selection of a jury.   When the first 10 members are agreed upon, those commissioners choose the last 5 members who are unaffiliated or 3rd party.    Over a period of months, the commission makes the maps, has public hearings, submits them to the legislature, which can amend the maps, then the legislature votes on them.

HB 1665 was just amended to remove Republican objections

An amendment was just approved March 4th to make HB 1665 acceptable to the governor.  These changes included:

- Reinforcing the role that it's an "advisory" commission.

- Removes language that sends legislature objections back to the commission for further work

- Removes language that the NH Supreme Court would ajudicate deadlocks.

The governor specified some of these objections in his veto statement of HB 706.

Why Have Republicans been opposed to it?

For those who've voted against it, some of those legislators are not necessarily against an independent redistricting commission, because it gives their party protections from gerrymandering if power in the State House shifts.  But nonetheless, they have voted against it because party leadership has pressured them to vote NO and support the Governor, and there are consequences for voting against leadership and the Governor.

Talking Points if Your Rep is Opposed to a Redistricting Commission

• HB 1665 is a bipartisan bill, crafted in NH for NH by Senator Jeb Bradley & Rep. Marjorie Smith.    The governor was mistaken when he said that national groups had written the bill.   They didn't. 
• HB 1665 is constitutional.  The legislature picks the commissioners, assures all is done in public, debates the proposed maps,

  Resources How do I find out who my state rep is? How did my state rep vote on the last redistricting bill?

  and votes on it.
• The NH Constitution, Part 2, Article 9 requires that NH elections shall be, “founded on the principles of equality.” You can't have voting equality with unfair voting districts.
• HB 1665 keeps the party in power from gaming the voting districts to benefit incumbents and packing for one party or the other -- particularly important in a purple state like New Hampshire where power shifts back & forth.
• It will end gerrymandering in NH, ensuring fair districts for all voters
• If the Governor should lose the 2020 election, this prevents Democrats from gerrymandering the voting districts against Republicans.
• Fair voting districts are a vote of conscience, a majority both Republican and Democrat voters are against gerrymandering and for and independent redistricting committee.

Talking Points if Your Rep is Supportive of a Redistricting Commission

• Thank them for their support, and for supporting the voters of the district
• Ask them to post publicly on their support of the bill, and why they support it.
• Thank them again for supporting Democracy reforms!

Four Things We Need You to Do

1)   Call, not write -- Unfortunately, we don't have enough time for writing letters this time, and their inboxes are swamped.  State legislators don't bite -- most of the time.

Here are call scripts to aid you in making calls.   We're OK if you need to vary from the script.  That's better, in fact.  In all cases, be courteous, and thank the reps for their time and for their service to New Hampshire.  

2)   Email us with what you learn -- Email Olivia Zink with the results of your calls.   This is helpful in directing follow up.

3)   Get friends in your town to call -- In emails and on social media, ask your friends to write, and to urgently call their state reps on this.  Underscore the importance of the bill, and that we might not have another opportunity like this for another 10 years.

4)    Sign the Petition  - We have a redistricting commission petition which, if we get lots of signatures, we'll submit to legislators.   Please SHARE this petition via social media.  

Action Needed Now -- The vote in the NH House is March 11, 2020

Thank you.  We're counting on our supporters to make sure their state representatives know that the voters want fair voting districts, even if party leadership doesn't.

Feel free to email any questions, or call me any day 8 AM - 9 PM at 603-620-8300.

Walk on,

Brian Beihl

Deputy Director