The 2014 New Hampshire legislative session now has two bills to improve ballot access. Recently three State House members introduced HB 1497, which changes the definition of “political party” from a group that polled 4% for either Governor or U.S. Senator in the last election, to one which polled 1% for either of those offices. The sponsors are Steven Smith (R-Charlestown), Tim O’Flaherty (D-Manchester), and Michael Sylvia (R-Belmont).
Other states with a vote test that is 1% (or a lesser percentage) are Colorado, Connecticut (although each office must qualify separately), Georgia (although the vote test is 1% of the number of registered voters and only applies to statewide office), Kansas, Maryland, Michigan (the vote test is 1% of the winning candidate’s vote), Nevada, New Mexico (one-half of 1%), New York (50,000 votes for Governor is approximately 1%), Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The other bill pending is HB 1322, which changes the vote test from 4% to 3%.
HB 1497 also lowers the number of signatures for candidates petitioning to gain a place on the general election ballot. The statewide petition would drop from 3,000 to 200, and the petition would not be mandatory, but only be needed for candidates who did not pay a $100 filing fee. In New Hampshire, candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot need not petition if they pay a filing fee. Darryl Perry is the activist who is responsible for HB 1497 being introduced.
The other bill is HB1322, 2523 was a prefiling number assigned to it!
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1497.html
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1322.html
Additionally, there is a bill to add NOTA to the ballot! http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1225.html
One more note: neither HB1225, nor HB1322 include a “financial impact” whereas the Department of State claims that HB1497 would cause the cost of elections to double!
Thank you; I fixed the post.
The way for HB 1497 to avoid vastly increasing the cost of elections is to amend the bill, to say that parties that polled less than 4% would nominate by convention instead of by primary. Past NH bills provided for that idea, so it wouldn’t be hard to draft; just find the old bill and copy that part of it. 17 states provide that small qualified parties nominate by convention whereas large ones nominate by primary, including New Hampshire’s neighbor, Vermont. Also Connecticut.
the way I read the DOS statement, is that the added costs would come from needing to print extra names on the general election ballot.