Although our state is probably the best place to live in the US, and although it is the safest and most respectful of Second Amendment rights of all the states, there are still some things that could be done to improve New Hampshire for all.
So, please consider the following suggestions (in effect, a wish list) in what some might consider an appropriate order (apologies in advance for the length of this piece):
#1- Eliminate same-day registration to vote.
The present laws allowing same-day registration to vote in our elections are invitations to fraud and abuse of the electoral process.
The argument against elimination of same-day registration is that our state will have to comply with the federal Motor Voter Law if we no longer allow same-day registration. So what!
This writer moved to NH from a state that never had same-day registration and was subject to the federal Motor Voter law since its inception, he worked extensively on ballot integrity matters in that state’s most populous county for many years- and found that compliance with Motor Voter was actually no big deal.
Which is worse, Motor Voter compliance or allowing throngs to register on the day of elections without effective policing as to whether they should be allowed to vote in our elections?
New Hampshire elections should be determined by voters who are bona fide New Hampshire residents.
This change can be accomplished by a statute adopted by the General Court and signed into law by the Governor.
#2- Eliminate college student voting.
At present anyone attending college in our state has, by state statute, the right to vote here, even if they are not bona fide residents of New Hampshire.
Anyone attending college in our state should vote in the locale from which they came to school, whether it be a town or city in New Hampshire or another state.
So, if you go to college at Dartmouth and have an apartment or dorm room there but you are actually from Massachusetts, you should vote absentee in Massachusetts. Likewise, if you are from Plymouth, NH, but attend Dartmouth, you should vote absentee in the Plymouth elections, not in the elections held in the Dartmouth area.
New Hampshire elections, including local elections, should be determined by voters who are bona fide New Hampshire residents from the locale in which an election is held.
This change can be accomplished by a statute adopted by the General Court and signed into law by the Governor.
#3 Eliminate the ability of voters registered as “undeclared” to select, receive, and vote a ballot of a political party in a party primary.
Candidates selected to run in a general election through the party primary process should be elected by voters who are actually members of the relevant political party, and not by “instant” members of a party they choose on election day at the polls.
Although political party registration is self-selected- i.e., there is no loyalty oath or blood test to determine who is really affiliated with the party in which they choose to register, in order to be allowed to vote in the candidate selection process of a party, the least we should expect is that those voting in that process have registered as members of that party. And prior to election day.
This would not require a constitutional amendment- only legislation passed by the General Court and signed into law by the Governor.
Why would not this be a simple, commonsense change to adopt?
#4- Prohibit personal taxes in our Constitution.
It does not take a genius to observe that politically our state is currently on a knife’s edge, especially in the NH House, where on any day the Dems could outnumber the Republicans and adopt their agenda, which includes new personal taxes.
Although the Senate is not as close, and although the Governor should serve as a “firewall” against such antics, the best way to protect our citizens once and for all in the future is by a constitutional amendment clearly prohibiting the taxation of personal incomes, personal capital gains, and any broad-based sales tax other than the existing tax on rooms & meals.
#5- Elect our Attorney General by popular vote.
Our attorney general is nominated by the Governor and must be confirmed by at least 3 of the 5 members of the Governor’s Executive Council. In other words, at present 4 individuals determine who will sit as the top law enforcement official in our state.
More than half of the states in the US elect their attorneys general by popular vote, but not New Hampshire.
Changing the existing process to a popular election would require an amendment to our state constitution, but it would probably be worth it.
It should be noted that even our Secretary of State, our state’s highest election official, is elected every two years by a vote of the 424 members of the General Court.
#6- Make our state court judges more accountable to the people.
Each of our state court judges is nominated by the Governor and must be confirmed by at least 3 of the 5 members of the Governor’s Executive Council. In other words, 4 individuals determine who will sit as one of our judges. And once confirmed, a judge serves until age 70 or until they retire or die before then.
Although there is a disciplinary process supposedly designed to deal with problem judges in our state, it is, in the opinion of many, a toothless tiger.
The only present way to remove a state court judge in our state is by the process of impeachment- articles of impeachment must be passed by the NH House and tried before the NH Senate. In the history of our state, only two such proceedings have even been initiated, neither of which resulted in the removal of the subject judge. In other words, impeachment is a hollow, ineffective remedy for New Hampshire.
It should be noted that all of our state representatives and senators, and our governor (and even our members of the federal congress), must stand for election every 2 years, so if any of them misbehave sufficiently, the people can simply vote them out of office. Not so with our judges.
A constitutional amendment could provide for the ability of citizens to gather sufficient signatures in a recall petition, and a recall election based upon the petition would be held. If a majority of the citizens vote for removal, the judge would be removed, and the vacancy must be filled.
This process has been used in wacky California for many years and has resulted in the removal of state supreme court justices as well as, incredibly, the state’s governor (this is how Arnold got to be governor).
Recall by such a process is a very high bar but it does work, and the existence of the process could serve a salutary effect on individuals serving as judges who might otherwise misbehave.
Query- if this is good enough for wacky California, why isn’t it good enough for New Hampshire?
#7- Purge Anti-Catholic bias from our state constitution.
In a couple of places in our state constitution there exist so-called Blaine Amendment language, which clearly originated in various parts of the country as expressions of anti-Catholic bias even after it was rejected by the US Congress many years ago.
In a state in which many Catholics from Canada migrated to the new state, and in which we now have a successful educational freedom account program, it is long past time to eliminate the Blaine Amendment language from the state constitution that purport to prohibit funding of religious schools.
#8- Eliminate an obsolete office from our constitution.
The state court reorganization several years ago eliminated substantially all duties of the office of Register of Probate, but we still have elections for that office in each of our counties every 2 years.
Thus, the Register of Probate in each county gets paid $100 a year but has no office, no desk, no staff and, essentially, no duties.
A constitutional amendment curing this issue was passed by the General Court a few years ago but did not achieve sufficient votes in the general election to become effective. It needs to be done once again with a better explanation for the voters.
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Can any of this actually be accomplished?
Not without a solid majority of “real” Republican members of the House and Senate and occupying the Governor’s office.
Obviously, none of these suggestions would garner support from Dems and most RINOs.
