Thank you all for your support and your votes! I won my election to Merrimack District 27, so you are officially my constituents (well, I won’t get sworn in until December 7, but no harm in a little anticipation.) My running mate, JR Hoell, also won in district 27; my husband Dan won in Epsom.
The winners in Dunbarton/Hooksett are Stephen Boyd, John Leavitt, Yury Polozov, and Tom Walsh; Alan Turcotte won in Allenstown. Keith Murphy won Senate District 16, which includes Hooksett; Howard Pearl won district 17, which includes Allenstown and Epsom; Ruth Ward won district 8, which includes Dunbarton.
I’ve been working on the recounts, which is always an interesting process. Most of the differences between election night and the recount are due to human error; if it was a hand count, you get transposed digits and some math errors. Misplacing a batch of ballots (either by hand or machine) is always possible: that’s probably what happened in the Manchester ward 6 recount (a stack of 25 ballots marked for both Republicans seems not to have been counted last week.). Machine versus hand count differences is largely caused by voters not following directions: by attempting to cross out a vote or making weird marks. One district I was recounting had an independent on the ballot, who got a lot of support from both sides – but many of them first voted for their party’s candidates, then tried to fix their ballot to vote for the independent. The machines couldn’t pick that up, but it was pretty easy for humans.
The House is currently at 201 Republicans, 198 Democrats, and one tie. One election from each side is being appealed to the Ballot Law Commission, and the tie will be decided by the House on December 7. We can accept one candidate or the other, toss a coin, or call a special election – probably plus other options I don’t know about! Regardless of the outcome of these three cases, it’s clear the next session is going to be critically dependent on attendance. Extreme legislation, from either side, is unlikely to pass.
This year, I’ve submitted ten bill requests and will cosponsor more, as I’m asked. Most of these were requests by agencies I deal with on my various committees.
- 1. rulemaking and public notice requirements for remote or hybrid meetings. This doesn’t have the criteria or authority for holding these meetings, just what you would need to do to ensure the public’s right to know if you do hold one. It is a request of the rulemaking staff.
2. Last year’s bill on cannabis legalization and home grow. I’m willing to cut the home grow section if that will help get it passed.
3. Updating the scope of practice for occupational therapists – a request of their professional organization.
4. Ratifying the latest amendments to the state building code, as recommended by the building code review board.
5. Minor updates to the rulemaking process, as requested by the staff.
6. Criteria for service retirement from state service. This was a constituent request, but I’m still working on the language: my initial draft had too many unintended
consequences. I may not be able to make it work this year.
7. Exempting the national guard from some rulemaking requirements, at their request.
8. Allowing the department of revenue to consider the equalization handbook (for property assessments) as independent of them, even though the assessing standards board is administratively attached to the department. This relaxes some rulemaking requirements and was a request of both the DRA and the rulemaking staff…
9. A major rewrite of the statutes governing the office of professional licensure and certification, cleaning up duties and responsibilities. This was a request of the committee on OPLC operations.
10. Cleanup of the sexual harassment training requirements for legislators, as requested by the staff and the ethics committee.
Mostly minutia, I’m afraid, but as long as we have laws about these things, I believe they should be accurate, up to date, and not interfere with efficient operations. I’d like to repeal some but don’t think it’s feasible this year.
Organization Day, December 7, the House will meet to elect the Speaker, the House Clerk, the Secretary of State, and the Treasurer. This time, we will also judge the qualifications of the member whose election is tied. After that meeting, everything is backstage, working on committee assignments and finalizing the bills. I’m going to take a trip since with Dan most likely on Finance, we’ll be busy until the end of June.
