Bill Text: NH SB70 | 2019 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relative to vacancies among primary candidates and prohibiting a candidate from receiving the nomination of more than one party.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2019-11-08 - Committee Report: Inexpedient to Legislate (Vote 20-0; Consent Calendar) [SB70 Detail]

Download: New_Hampshire-2019-SB70-Introduced.html

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SB 70  - AS INTRODUCED

 

 

2019 SESSION

19-1096

11/03

 

SENATE BILL 70

 

AN ACT relative to vacancies among primary candidates and prohibiting a candidate from receiving the nomination of more than one party.

 

SPONSORS: Sen. Morgan, Dist 23; Sen. Soucy, Dist 18

 

COMMITTEE: Election Law and Municipal Affairs

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill allows appropriate party committees to nominate undeclared but otherwise eligible residents in case no declaration for nomination is filed for a primary election, and prohibits a candidate from receiving the nomination of more than one party.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

19-1096

11/03

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen

 

AN ACT relative to vacancies among primary candidates and prohibiting a candidate from receiving the nomination of more than one party.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  Nominations; Vacancies Among Primary Candidates; No Declaration Filed.  Amend RSA 655:32, II to read as follows:  

II.  The appropriate party committee may appoint an undeclared but otherwise eligible resident to appear on the ballot under the party label, provided that such a resident, when completing the declaration of candidacy pursuant to paragraph I and as provided in RSA 655:17, shall enter "undeclared" when asked to provide his or her party affiliation.

III.  For the purposes of this section, the term "appropriate party committee" shall be as defined in RSA 655:36.

2  Preparation of Voting Materials; Electronic Ballot Counting Devices.  Amend RSA 656:42, VIII(e)(4) to read as follows:

(4)  The town or city clerk shall mark the test ballots in such a way as to demonstrate a vote for each candidate on at least one test ballot, as well as votes for less than and more than the number of candidates that may be voted for an office, write-ins, [multiple votes for a candidate who appears in more than one party column for the same office on a general election ballot,] and ballots on which there are no votes.  The clerk shall mark as many as possible of the combinations of choices that a voter may indicate on the ballot.

3 Election Procedure; Canvass and Declaration; State Primary Election; Candidate of One Party.  Amend RSA 659:91-a, I to read as follows:

I.  Any person who runs as a candidate on any party's state primary election ballot [and who is not chosen as the candidate for that party for the elective office for which the person was a candidate] shall not under any circumstances run as the nominee of a different party in the state general election.

4  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.