On August 9, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, vetoed HB 706. It would have set up an independent redistricting commission. There would be ten members of the party with the most seats in the legislature, ten members of the party with the second-most seats in the legislature, and five members who were members of neither of those two parties. Here is the text of the bill. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news.
Sounds reasonable
NO gerrymander commissions.
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PR and AppV and TOTSOP
Basically it was a pro-litigation bill. It gives plaintiffs an opportunity to testify about how gerrymandering should be done, and then if it isn’t they’ll sue because it wasn’t done their way.
It was hardly “independent”. Democrat legislative leaders would choose 10 Democrats, and the Republicans would choose 5 Democrats from that 10. The opposite procedure would be used for choosing the 5 Republicans. The 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans would choose the 5 non-DemoReps. So the trick would be to manipulate the process to get a majority (similar to what happened in Arizona).
The legislature would approve the plans. If they didn’t the commission would have to adjust their plan and try again.
Better would be to let anyone propose a plan, and have a sample of the electorate choose which they prefer.
@DR,
What is TOTSOP?
Take Out The Stupid Old Politics!
JR –
TOTAL SEPARATION of POWERS.
See Montesquieu – Spirit of the Laws (1748) – French original
One more of the major political works of Western Civilization.
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Each officer shall have only legislative, executive or judicial powers.
NH has 10 counties and 234 municipalities. The state House of Reps has 400 members and the Senate has 24. Simple rule: each county gets 1 Senator for each 1/24 of the population, and 1 Rep for each 1/400 of the population. Within each county, each municipality gets 1 Rep for each 1/400 of the population. Within each county and municipality entitled to its own Reps, all legislators are elected at large with either ranked choice, approval/disapproval or cumulative voting. No need for any districts apart from any existing town or county lines.
Gerrymander math 0000001-
1/2 or less votes x 1/2 areas = 1/4 or less CONTROL.
Basic PR math SINCE 1840S [REPEAT 1840S] —-
PARTY MEMBERS = TOTAL MEMBERS X PARTY VOTES / TOTAL VOTES.
IE – PARTY CANDIDATES GET ZZ PCT OF VOTES >>> PARTY GETS ZZ PCT OF TOTAL MEMBERS
= PARTY RESPONSIBILITY FOR LAWS —
WITH LOTS MORE ATTENTION FOR THE *MEDIAN* VOTER.
DIFFICULT ONLY FOR PARTY HACK LAWYERS AND JUDGES – ESP SCOTUS MATH MORONS.
@WZ, NH used to have such a system for its House, except representatives were apportioned based on the number of freeholders in a town. There was some malapportioment since a town might get one representative for 200 persons, 2 for 800, and 1 for each 800 additional. One reason the House is so large is that the numbers were fixed and as the population grew the House grew. Representatives could be chosen at town meetings.
A cool feature was for small towns not entitled to a representative. They would be gathered in districts, but rather than having a district-wide elections, representation would be apportioned out over legislative sessions. So over 10 annual sessions, a town with 3/10 of the district population would choose a representative to three of 10 sessions (there would be a schedule drawn up for the district).