CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Ballots will have a new look and layout Tuesday, and election officials are advising voters to pay extra attention.
In most races, competing candidates will be listed from left to right. But candidates for state representative will be listed in a grid, requiring voters to look from top to bottom as well.
“In society, you are encouraged to look left to right,” said Nashua City Clerk Paul Bergeron. “That’s how you read, but then the voter has to shift when he or she gets to the House candidates.”
The changes resulted from a recent state Supreme Court ruling that threw out the old system of giving the top ballot spot in each race to candidates from the party that won the most votes in the previous election.
The court said candidates listed first could have a slight advantage with voters, and that advantage should be shared among parties. Under a combination of new state laws and court rulings, each of the three qualifying parties – Republican, Democratic and Libertarian – will have its candidates listed first on one-third of state ballots.
The high court also threw out the practice of listing candidates in alphabetical order within a party. Now, Secretary of State Bill Gardner picks a letter out of a hat, then lists candidates in alphabetical order. On this ballot, the list starts with “K.”
For most races in the general election, the alphabet is not an issue. But in House races, voters need to look at the whole grid before choosing candidates, who will be listed first by party and then in alphabetical order from K to Z, then A to J within each party.
In each district, voters can choose more than one, up to the total number of House seats for that district.
For example, in Nashua’s Ward 2, three Democrats and three Republicans are competing for three seats. While Democrat Suzanne Harvey is listed next to Republican Eleanor Casey Crane, the two aren’t competing head-to-head for the same seat – voters can pick both of them, one of them or neither.
Secretary of State Bill Gardner said voters could make errors if they don’t pay close attention.
“This is something unlike voters will have seen in a generation. We will see if it trips people up,” he said. “If people get confused, (a candidate) could get hurt just by who they happened to be paired against on the same line.”
Senate Majority Leader Robert Clegg, R-Hudson, disapproves of the changes, some of them made by the Legislature.
“I pity the House candidates,” said Clegg, a former House leader. “Theyve got to identify people they know are going to vote for them and make sure they can find their name. In a long string of candidates, it wont be easy.”
Meanwhile, more changes could be on the horizon. Lawmakers have filed nearly two dozen bills to modify the ballot in the next legislative session.
“Well be back at this next year and hopefully learn some valuable lessons from this exercise,” Gardner said.
—
Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
AP-ES-11-06-06 1909EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
