(The Center Square) — New Hampshire lawmakers are considering plans to move up the state’s primary date, which supporters argue will boost voter turnout and even the playing field for challengers.
One Republican-backed proposal would move the state primary to the second Tuesday in June. Another GOP bill would move the primary to the fourth Tuesday in August, moving it up two weeks from the current date or the second Tuesday in September.
Supporters claim the move would boost voter turnout and help challengers running for state and local elected offices. Critics say the late primary date doesn’t allow enough time for winning candidates to prepare for the general election.
Secretary of State David Scanlan oversees the state’s elections and supports efforts to move the state primary date up in the calendar. In testimony, Scanlan said he would prefer an August primary date but wasn’t opposed to holding it in June.
“There is no question that we need to move the primary further back from the general election,” Scanlan told members of the House Election Laws Committee on Tuesday. “We are on a really tight time frame.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, has said she prefers moving the state primary to June instead of August but hasn’t specifically voiced support for either proposal working its way through the state Legislature. Her support increases the likelihood that the date will be changed.
New Hampshire Democrats have generally opposed efforts to move the state primary date, with some calling it an “incumbent protection plan” because Republicans tend to hold more primaries.
New Hampshire has wrangled over its early state primary date for years. In 2021, then-Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a bipartisan bill that called for moving the state primary elections to the first week in August. Sununu, a Republican, said moving the date to August would disenfranchise Granite Staters residents who are on vacation that month and dampen voter turnout.
While New Hampshire is known for its ‘first-in-the-nation’ presidential primary, the state primary date – which has been held on the second Tuesday in September since 1910 – is one of the last in the nation. Only Rhode Island holds a later state primary.
A 2022 University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll showed at least 86% of voters support moving the state’s primary date to June.
