Time to draw the lines
As published in the Oct. 5, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel and online.
Before the legislative committee charged with re-dividing New Hampshire's 400 House seats among it 1.3 million people gets started, residents have a chance to weigh in on how they think the pie should be cut.
Public hearings have been scheduled for the coming month in each county.
"It's a clear slate, so before we start to fill in the lines on that slate we want to hear from the public," said Rep. Edwin O. "Smokey" Smith, R-Hinsdale, a member of the committee on redistricting.
However, he warned that new districting rules added to the state constitution in 2006 will limit the committee's options in drawing districts.
District lines are redrawn every 10 years when new census figures become available, but this is the first time the 2006 rules will be in effect.
"This isn't going to make everyone happy -- we know that going in. We're just going to try to make as many people happy as we can," Smith said.
Once the new lines are drawn, more towns will have their own representatives.
As an example, Smith's district -- Cheshire 4 -- now covers Hinsdale, Winchester and Chesterfield, and the three towns share four representatives.
Under the new rules, any of those towns that have more voters than the target size for a house district (this year it's 3,291) has a right to its own seat at the Statehouse.
Additional "at-large" district will be composed of towns or wards of more than 3,291 voters -- so they qualify for additional representation -- but not enough for two dedicated seats.
It's a "complicated and complex" set-up, Smith said, and the numbers may not leave the committee with a lot of options for drawing the at-large districts. The law limits the size of a district to within 10 percent of the target, plus or minus.
"Maybe two towns work well together, they have a school district together, but if the total is above or below 10 percent it's going to throw the whole county off," Smith said.
Nonetheless, he's asking residents to attend the public hearings and share their local knowledge with the committee.
In the most recent redistricting, 10 years ago, Merrimack and Litchfield were at first put together into one district, even though they are on opposite sides of a river and not connected by a bridge, Smith said. On the map it made perfect sense -- if you assumed there was a bridge.
"There are going to be cases where we sit with the numbers and say 'this could work or this could work.' If there are reasons that the people have told us that one doesn't work, we'll know that the first one is better than the second," Smith said.
tagged with: N.H. House, politics, redistricting
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