Most people assume there’s a method to the madness when it comes to redistricting every 10 years. Having voted in the 2nd largest city for so long and having only been paying attention to such things for a short while, I became somewhat simple minded.
Nashua has a population of about 90,000, and it also has nine wards, each being its own rep district. The math was easy, that’s 27 seats in the house, and I previously blindly assumed that other cities were set up as such, and towns had a number of rep seats as per population. I hadn’t even heard the word “floterial” until I saw it on a 2020 rep candidate survey and had to ask what it meant. With that being said, any intelligent person will recognize that most towns don’t have populations of perfect multiples of close to 3333, hence the ballot saying “vote for not more than (a number greater than three),” or less than three. The latter towns have populations of less than 10,000 and must share their 3rd rep with one or more town. Reasonable, right? At least it is, so far. Math numbers are often messy, so it’s also reasonable that three towns could share two seats or four towns share three seats, for example.
I was a reliable A student in math until taking precalculus, so I’m familiar with greatest common factors and least common denominators, so the above-noted fractions, like 2/3 and 3/4, pass the smell test in my world. Something like 2/4, not so much! If math wasn’t your favorite subject, that’s ok because everyone can embrace the words “work smarter, not harder.” And when I say “everyone,” that includes Scanlan and his staff. Furthermore, two towns sharing a rep seat means the candidates for that seat must campaign in two towns. If four towns are sharing two rep seats, that means all those candidates must campaign in all four towns. In a rural area, that’s a big deal for both manpower and money. Door knocking, lit dropping, miles on odometers, larger signs for 50mph visibility, and various other things have to be considered, but you get the picture. It’s just practical reasoning to simplify things as much as possible.
Another thing I will add is that everything I just said is neither red nor blue, but for disclosure’s sake, I will point out that I wasn’t even paying attention until I wanted to know exactly who the constituents were for a certain Uniparty establishment rep. That was when I noticed this rep is shared by two towns, and there happens to be a 2nd seat shared by those same two towns! What that means in trying to recruit a candidate for a primary is that the challenger must campaign twice as much as someone in a primary for an ordinary seat. “Incumbent Protection Plan,” anyone? But wait a minute, maybe not, because there are some blue districts with that situation also.
In this link, the following districts have two seats shared by two towns:
- Carroll-6
- Cheshire-10
- Hillsborough-38
- Hillsborough-44
- Merrimack-4
- Merrimack-7
- Merrimack-13
- Rockingham-14
- Rockingham-24
(18 seats, 18 towns)
And the following districts have three seats shared by three towns:
- Grafton-8
- Hillsborough-32
- Merrimack-8
- Rockingham-2
- Rockingham-20
- Sullivan-3
(also 18 seats, 18 towns)
Wouldn’t it make more sense if the above 36 seats only needed to be campaigned for in just one town apiece?
If you, the reader, don’t care about the duplicity and triplicity of money, manpower, and resources required to elect a rep, at least consider the possible amount of junk mail saved from coming to your mailbox.
