New Hampshire Voters Submit Brief to State Supreme Court in Ongoing Redistricting Case
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Jena Doyle
doyle@redistrictingfoundation.org
New Hampshire Voters Submit Brief to State Supreme Court in Ongoing Redistricting Case
Washington, D.C.— Today, with the support of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), New Hampshire voters submitted a reply brief to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in the case Brown v. Scanlan, an ongoing legal challenge to New Hampshire’s state Senate and Executive Council maps as partisan gerrymanders. Oral argument in this case will be heard on May 11.
“The Senate and Executive Council maps were clearly drawn for one purpose: to illegitimately increase the political power of the Republican party in a way that is not representative of New Hampshire voters,” said Olivia Mendoza, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRF. “Not content with gerrymandering their way to political power, Republicans are also slicing and dicing the state constitution to make an argument defending their partisan gerrymander. We are asking the court to protect New Hampshirites’ constitutional right to vote on equal terms and have substantially equal voting power in Senate and Executive Council elections. We look forward to presenting our case to the Court at oral argument.”
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 freely 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.
The full brief can be found HERE.
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