2 weeks Ago
THE NEWS that Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander will not run for the U.S. Senate seat to replace the retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen made me once again reflect on the importance of changing our state’s primary date.
The date of New Hampshire’s primary has been set in statute for decades. New Hampshire’s state primary election is currently held on the second Tuesday in September of every even-numbered year. This late date makes for one of the shortest general election match-ups in the entire country.
Most states have a June primary or in the case of some of our neighboring states August. Why does the late date in September matter? For one thing, it favors incumbents. In primaries where two candidates are well funded and evenly matched or where there are many candidates, the party electorate is likely to be split.
Once the primary is over, the prevailing candidate is left with little time to earn the support of the voters who supported their opponent in that primary, while the incumbent has the advantage of holding office, garnering press and being already well known to the voters in the state or district. However, I think the most impactful reason to change the date of our state primary is for voters who cast absentee ballots, particularly those who serve our country in the various branches of the military. Federal law requires that the Secretary of State prepare and send out absentee ballots within a set period of time before the general election so that people serving overseas have an opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote, a right that they are on the front lines protecting.
Our late state primary has left the secretary with very little time to prepare the general election ballots and get them out to the voters who have made requests. This can be even more difficult for the secretary if any office on the primary ballot of either party ended in a close result, triggering a recount. When a recount is requested, depending on the office being recounted it can take many days to hand count the ballots.
This process can delay the printing of general election ballots and shorten the time that military and overseas voters have to receive, cast and return their ballots. Moving the date of the primary earlier in the year would solve this potential problem. So why hasn’t the Legislature done it yet? Over the last few years, the Legislature has unsuccessfully attempted to move the date of the primary to June or August.
Opinions vary widely about which of the two months would be the more appropriate time to conduct the primary, however, there was bipartisan agreement that July would not work. As a state senator, I spent time with my colleague Senator Regina Birdsell talking to secretaries of state from around the country, listening to the pros and cons of their various dates. What we heard from them was that the more robust the primaries run by the candidates, the better the voter turnout regardless of whether it was held in June or August.
Sen. Birdsell and I both support August because of concerns expressed by town clerks who would be sending out tax bills while at the same time having to prepare for an election in June. Governor Sununu, however, did not support August and would only agree to sign a bill if the primary were changed to sometime in June.
In subsequent years as a state senator, I supported bills to change the date to June or August because I believed that it was beneficial to the voters to make this change. This year, the Legislature has both a Senate and House bill to change the date of the primary to June. I think now is the time to make the change.
Though Rep. Goodlander’s decision to not run for Senate but instead to seek reelection means that there won’t be a hotly contested Democratic primary for U.S.
Senate, there will likely be plenty of contested primaries on both the Republican and Democratic ballots. Let’s move the primary and give the voters more time to consider who will best represent them..
