New Hampshire Voters Ask State Supreme Court to Recognize its Authority to Strike Down Partisan Gerrymanders

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Brooke Lillard

lillard@redistrictingfoundation.org 

New Hampshire Voters Ask State Supreme Court to Recognize its Authority to Strike Down Partisan Gerrymanders 

Washington, D.C.—Today, with the support of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), New Hampshire voters asked the New Hampshire Supreme Court to determine that the state’s courts have the authority to strike down maps as partisan gerrymanders in violation of the state’s Constitution. The brief is the latest development in an ongoing legal challenge to New Hampshire’s state Senate and Executive Council maps as partisan gerrymanders. 

“Our system of checks and balances is crucial to a functioning democracy, and it is the duty of the judicial branch to provide a check on the executive and legislative branches of government  when they violate the rights of the people,” said Marina Jenkins, the NRF’s Director of Litigation and Policy. “By enacting egregiously gerrymandered maps, the legislature is seeking to prevent New Hampshire voters from having a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the political process. These maps illegitimately inflate the power of Republican politicians, even when they do not receive a majority of the votes, effectively making it impossible for the will of the people to be heard in determining the majority in both the state Senate and the Executive Council.”

The 2022 election results underscore the extent to which New Hampshire Republicans gerrymandered. In 2022, despite receiving less than 50 percent of the total votes in all Senate races, Republicans captured 58 percent of Senate seats on the gerrymandered map. Despite receiving less than 50 percent of the total votes in all Executive Council races, Republicans captured 80 percent of Executive Council seats.

The state Senate and Executive Council maps are being challenged under several different clauses of the New Hampshire Constitution. First, they violate the state’s Free and Equal Elections Clause because they were enacted to and will prevent Democratic voters from fairly and equally participating in the political process. Second, they violate the state’s guarantee of equal protection because they dilute the voting strength of Democratic voters and deny them their right to a substantially equal vote compared to Republican voters. Third, they violate the state’s guarantees of free speech and association by retaliating against Democratic voters based on their political views and diluting their ability to elect candidates of their choice.

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