Current New Hampshire law permits write-ins in primaries. The law also says that any write-in candidate in a primary who gets the most votes for a particular office, and who gets at least 10 write-ins, is nominated. HB 1204 would raise that to a minimum of 35 write-in votes.
Although it may sound trivial to require even 35 write-in votes, many New Hampshire State House districts are very small. The state has 400 State House members, and in some districts that only a single member, fewer than 1,000 voters may turn out at the primary.
And the rocket sciences of the Free State Project point to New Hamshire as the best bet for a Liberty based enclave?
I’m in favor of this bill, because the main use of this law has been to allow those in the opposite party to ensure a general election win by a small coordinated effort to gain a spot on the opposite side of the ballot. The current vast majority of writein victories in party primaries are not independents, they are fusioned D-R or R-D. If increasing the writein level from 5-10 to 35 reduces this, more power to it. This isn’t going to affect 3rd party runs (this is only for party primaries), nor those who truly run a campaign for a primary seat within a party (if you can’t get 35 people to support you for the writein, how will you win in the general?)…
As usual, the criticism of the FSP is completely offbase: it’ll STILL be far easier to run for smaller offices here in NH than anyplace else.