Rep. Terie Norelli

By Rep. Terie Norelli

New Hampshires Supreme Court recently ruled that the ballots used in our elections are unconstitutional. You, the voter, may be wondering just what is it that the court found wrong?In New Hampshire, both the House and Senate have an overwhelming majority of Republican members. This is not reflective of the actual voter registration in New Hampshire, which falls around 31 percent Republican, 29 percent Democratic, with the remaining being undeclared. Yet, Republicans are in control of the Legislature and can usually pass just about any legislation they want. And to pretty much guarantee they can keep that majority, Republicans have passed laws to keep themselves on topliterally on topof the ballot.This is the law that the Court found to be in violation of your constitutional right to a fair election system.Our Supreme Court has found that it is unconstitutional to list the party with the most votes in the last election first or to list the candidates in alphabetical order. Testimony submitted during the trial provided evidence of the primacy effect. This means that there is an unfair advantage for the party that is listed at the top of the ballot and also for candidates who are listed near the top, which could have an effect on the outcome of an election.Candidates for the office of state representative in the Legislature are the most likely to be affected by this ruling because of multi-seat districts. The primacy effect would be even more significant in large districts where it is possible under the current law for a Democratic candidate to be the 26th name listed on a ballot.Are Republicans gnashing their teeth so much because they are worried about losing seats in the House? Why else would they now be claiming that the Legislature needs time to fix this when legislation has been introduced time and again, including this term, to change the ballot? Republicans have consistently opposed making any of these changes.The presidential primary ballot used in New Hampshire has rotated the order of names for many years, and more than a dozen other states have changed their ballots to eliminate the primacy effect. While it may be impractical to have different ballots in a small House district, state law should at least provide an equal opportunity for any candidate to appear first. There are several options that could be used for designing a new ballot. These include party columns listed side-by-side on a rotational basis and randomly selecting a letter of the alphabet to begin the listing of candidates. This is something that can be done easily. I applaud the Democrats who, since the 1990s, have tried repeatedly to pass legislation that would provide N.H. voters with a fair ballot system. Democracy only works when there is fairness of elections. A level playing field is all that the Democrats are asking. There is no justification in a democratic society to subvert the right and power of the voters.N.H. State Rep. Terie Norelli lives in Portsmouth. She can be reached at norelli@comcast.net.