CONCORD — The state Senate endorsed legislation (SB 380) to move the state’s primary three months earlier to June starting with the 2026 election.
Some lawmakers from both parties have long sought this change but the outlook in 2024 for it to become reality has never looked better.
In 2022, New Hampshire’s last state primary on Sept. 13 was the latest in the country, along with Delaware and Rhode Island.
State Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, said the current date after recounts gives candidates only about 60 days to regroup and make the case to a larger pool of voters in the general election.
“This will give us more time to message to a larger audience of voters,” Abbas said.
Senate Majority Whip Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, was the only senator publicly to object to the idea the Senate endorsed on a voice vote.
Birdsell said in an election year state senators spend much of April and May working on hundreds of bills that have come over from the House of Representatives.
Conversely, House members at the same time work on a much smaller number of Senate measures, she noted.
“We are doing the business of the state while our opponents are campaigning against us,” Birdsell warned.
In 2021, Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a bill at the urging of then-Secretary of State Bill Gardner that would have moved the primary a month up to the second Tuesday in August.
Sununu argued that August wasn’t a good time to hold an election because it was in the middle of the summer tourism season.
He signaled to lawmakers last summer that he would be open to moving the primary to June.
Scanlan against idea in 2023
A year ago, Secretary of State David Scanlan’s office came out against a similar bill to move the state primary to June.
At that time, Senior Deputy of State Patricia Lovejoy told a House panel the only change Scanlan sought would move the election up a few weeks to deal with new post-election requirements.
A law put into place in 2022 requires the state to conduct random audits after the primary to check the accuracy of ballot-counting machines.
Federal law also requires the state to ensure that absentee ballots are sent out to overseas residents or soldiers at least 45 days before each election.
State election officials last year were able to meet the federal standard, but Lovejoy said moving the primary up a few weeks could make things run more smoothly.
“Moving the primary to June will also provide more time to deliver absentee ballots to New Hampshire troops overseas in time for the general election,” Abbas said Thursday.
Back in January 2023, Lovejoy did say that Scanlan could make a June primary work if it was the Legislature’s desire.
During a hearing last month on this bill, no one from Scanlan’s staff attended and the office took no position on it.
The bill’s prime author, Rep. Timothy Lang, R-Sanbornton, testified that he’s been working with Scanlan’s office on how to smoothly make the date change.
Cosponsors of the latest change include three of the top House Republicans, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, Majority Floor Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, and Election Laws Committee Chairman Ross Berry, R-Manchester.
