Next Tuesday, two of my bills will be heard before the Election Law Committee.  They both deal with “Inspectors of Election”.  These are folks sent by local political party committees to help run an election.  I tried to find out exactly what the duties and responsibilities of these folks are.  The duties were spread out over several sections of state law.  It wasn’t very easy to find them all.  The Deputy Secretary of State told me that you could find a better description in the Elections Manual.  It didn’t make sense to me that you had to get another book to have the law explained to you.  HB151 consolidates these duties in one place so that regular people can more easily find it.  You can read it yourself here – http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2013/HB0151.html

The second bill seeks to restrict these folks from participating in Town Meeting Day.  Town Meetings are non-partisan affairs.  Candidates do not have their party listed after their name.  In a state where it sometimes seems that we only get a few months off between elections, I just want to protect Town Meetings from becoming the kind of hyper-partisan event that everything is.  You can read it for yourself here – http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2013/HB0150.html

Committee hearings are open to the public.  If you’d like to be heard on these issues, you always have the right to come down and speak.

Thanks for listening,

Steve