New Hampshire Representative Kristina Schultz, chief sponsor of HB 643, will amend her bill so that it does not injure ballot access. The purpose of HB 643 is to move the non-presidential New Hampshire primary from September to June. The original bill moved deadlines relating to independent and minor party petitions from August to May, but this was an inadvertent characteristic of the bill. Schultz said she had not realized those petition deadlines are tied to the date of the primary, so her amendment will fix that problem. Thanks to Chip Spangler for this news.
Why does she want to change the primary date?
Doesn’t such a long gap violate the 14th, 15th, and 26th amenments?
The purpose of the bill seems to be to have a longer time between the primary and general elections in order for candidates to have more time to campaign.
Food for thought — 2018 primary dates: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2018-state-primary-election-dates.aspx New Hampshire currently has one of the latest primaries.
I don’t think having it in June is a good idea, but moving it to early or mid August probably makes sense.