Senate Republicans Vote ITL on SB 90, Reject Legislation to Ensure Transparency & Fairness in Redist
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3207
CONCORD – Today, the Senate Election Law & Municipal Affairs Committee voted to ITL SB 90 in a 3-2 vote down party lines. If enacted, SB 90 would have ensured that resources available to legislative committees in their work on redistricting would be explicitly available to members of both the majority and minority party; it would have ensured that once a redistricting committee created or considered a map, it would have been made readily available to the public; and it would have required that any legislative committee meetings on redistricting would be open to the public. These were protections would have extended beyond those provided for in RSA 91-A, such as requiring digital access to meetings, which would have been an improvement to the process and benefited the public.
After the hearing, prime sponsor Senator Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) issued the following statement:
“This bill was a commonsense approach to ensuring basic fairness and transparency in the redistricting process. There’s often a public perception that legislative maps are drawn behind closed doors, with no public access. SB 90 would have responded to that perception, and would have been critical to ensuring trust and confidence in NH voters. I am disappointed that, once again, my Republican colleagues have voted against the additional transparency and equity that this bill would have added to this critically important process, regardless of which party was conducting such process.”
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