HB 445 - AS INTRODUCED
1999 SESSION
HOUSE BILL 445
AN ACT relative to straight ticket voting procedures.
SPONSORS: Rep. Arndt, Rock 27; Rep. Langley, Rock 24
This bill provides that marks on a ballot for a political party will override votes for individual candidates.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
99-0790
03/10
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine
AN ACT relative to straight ticket voting procedures.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Election Procedure; Voting Procedure; Marking the Ballot, Instructions to Voters; Straight Ticket Voting. Amend RSA 659:17, III to read as follows:
III. In a state general election, the following instructions to voters for straight ticket voting shall be printed on the ballot: Make the appropriate mark for the political party of your choice if you wish to vote for all candidates running in that party. If you vote a straight ticket, [but wish to vote for one or more individual candidates, you may do so, and] your straight party vote will override your vote for an individual candidate [will override the straight party vote] for that office. [However, if you vote for one candidate for an office where more than one candidate is to be elected, be sure to vote individually for all candidates of your choice for that office, because your straight ticket vote will not be counted for that office.]
2 Election Procedure; Special Provisions for Counting Vote on State General Election Ballots; County Straight Party Vote; Party Votes Override Votes for Candidates. Amend RSA 659:66 to read as follows:
659:66 Counting Straight Party Vote. If, in accordance with RSA 659:17, a ballot is marked to indicate a straight party vote, but an appropriate mark is beside the name of a candidate of a different party for any office, or the name of a person is written on the lines for write-in votes, then the vote so appropriately marked or so written on the lines for write-in votes shall not be counted and the straight party vote shall override the [straight party] vote for that office.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.