Each year, candidates for public office in New Hampshire have to go to the Secretary of State or their local town clerk’s office to formalize their candidacy. For most, candidates must pay a small fee and fill out an affidavit of financial interests.
For who the Granite State lovingly refers to as “independent candidates and others,” the process is far more complicated.
A candidate for Governor or the United States Senate must collect 3,000 certified signatures on nominating papers, each of which may only be signed by a single voter, with 1,500 of those coming from each Congressional district. This isn’t dissimilar to other neighboring states where candidates of some parties, including major parties in some New England states, are required to gather petitions from within their district. Where New Hampshire diverges from its neighbors lies in the certification process.
After collecting at least 3,000 certifiable petitions, along with others that will be rejected for illegibility or bearing a signature of someone not registered to vote, candidates and their volunteers must deliver each signed paper to town and city clerks across the state for the first certification. Some clerks may not understand their responsibility in ensuring nominating papers reach their supervisors of the checklist, but what’s universal in each municipality is the completely unnecessary administrative burden imposed on them by obsolete state law.
Once the first certification is completed, some municipalities will mail certified nominating papers back to the candidates, and others require a personal collection by a candidate or volunteer. Once those are sorted and counted, and a candidate reasonably believes they have enough certified petitions, they’re ready to be delivered to the Secretary of State for a final count and discrepancy check.
For Libertarians, in particular, the requirement seems to serve no purpose other than to waste energy and resources before a campaign ever truly begins. Whether gathering enough signatures or getting a large enough share of the vote in the prior election, Libertarians have been on the ballot for every election cycle they’ve contested.
In 2020, a federal judge agreed that, despite enforced closures relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual Libertarian strategy of gathering signatures at grocery stores and mass gatherings such as fairs is historically effective, in essence admitting that Libertarians’ consistent success was a factor in a ruling lowering the requirement temporarily.
Other parties, such as the Green Party, have been bitten by a quirk in the law that causes the signature of anyone signing for multiple candidates to be rejected from the total for all candidates for whom they signed. Voters who signed petitions for both the Green and Libertarian candidates saw their signatures rejected for both, which has occasionally created enough of a loss to prevent the Green candidate from appearing on the general election ballot.
New Hampshire’s ballot access laws need an update to reflect the reality of the political atmosphere in the state. Granite Staters enjoy free and equal access to candidates for public office, which is unparalleled by any other state and should enjoy free and equal access to the ballot as well.
This piece expressed the views of its author, separate from those of this publication
Thanks for explaining that cumbersome process. I agree it should be simplified.