Voters want end to gerrymandered legislative districts

To The Daily Sun,

Last week the New Hampshire Legislature voted to let stand 52 of Governor Chris Sununu’s record number of 53 vetoes. Among those bills thrown into the trash was HB-706 that would create an electoral redistricting advisory commission to update New Hampshire’s electoral maps in 2021 and prevent partisan gerrymandering.

During the regular legislative session, both the House and Senate Election Law Committees unanimously recommended passage of this bill; it easily passed in the House (218/123, 64 percent) and by a voice vote in the Senate. In May the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice had praised HB-706 as a model for bipartisan redistricting reform. Commenting on Governor Sununu’s August veto of this bill, the Brennan Center pointed out that his act was throwing out a plan that would ensure fair treatment of Republicans in the 2021 redistricting even if Democrats do well in the 2020 elections. All but seven Republican House members voted to sustain the governor’s shortsighted veto of HB-706.

New Hampshire voters want an end to the gerrymandering that frustrates a core principle of democracy: voters should select their politicians, not the other way around. Please join me in expressing to Governor Sununu and your representatives your disappointment in the defeat of HB-706 and urge passage of similar legislation in 2020.

Margaret Merritt 

Sandwich