On February 5, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee heard testimony on HB 665, which eases ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The bill lowers the petition for all partisan office to one-tenth of 1% of that area’s population. For statewide office, in this decade, it would lower the petition from 3,000 to 1,317 signatures.

Three witnesses testified in favor of the bill, and written testimony pointed out that in November 2014, New Hampshire was one of only five states with a Democratic-Republican ballot monopoly for all the statewide offices (the others were California, Alabama, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania). Also, in 2006, New Hampshire was one of only four states with a Dem-Rep monopoly for all the statewide offices. And in 2004, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Michael Badnarik was on the ballot in every state except New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

The only witness who testified against HB 665 was Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan, who works under Secretary of State Bill Gardner. Gardner has been Secretary of State since 1979, and was in office in 1981 when the legislature increased the statewide petition from 1,000 to 3,000 signatures.

The committee seemed favorably disposed toward the bill, but wants to entertain a few amendments to the bill.