Here are some facts and figures to chew on, followed by a rant.
New Hampshire has one of the largest parliamentary bodies (read: legislature) in the English-speaking world. The NH General Court is made up of the Senate, with 24 members, and the House, with 400 members. No, I did not add a 0 by accident. That's right - Four. Hundred.
NH population according to the 2010 US Census is 1,318,194. That gives us 1 Representative for every 3295 residents.
Out of the 1.3 million NH residents, 21.2% are under the age of 18 and therefore unable to vote. So the voting population is (at most) 1,038,736. As of January 2012, there are 791,249 registered voters in NH. Which drops our Rep-to-resident ratio all the way down to 1/1978.
In the 2008 Presidential election, NH voter turnout was 72.5% (kicking the national turnout rate of 61%, I might add). Assuming a similar turnout this year, that puts us at 573,656 ballots cast in NH. Which now drops the ratio to 1 Representative per every 1434 voters. How few people it now takes to swing the election one way or another.
My presidential vote may be a drop in the ocean, but my vote for State Representative is more like a drop in a shot glass. Although, I should say my votes. I actually have 8 votes for State Rep. My district is my town, and based on our town population, we get 8 Representatives. It's not broken down by area any further, so I currently have a ballot with 16 names from which to choose.
I understand not breaking the district down further to assign each Representative a specific area. I'm not crazy about it, I think it makes it much harder for me to understand who my elected Representatives are and who they stand for, but I do understand. I don't really understand why NH needs 400 Representatives, but that's coming from someone who grew up in a similarly small state that manages to get by with merely 151 Representatives.
What I do not understand is why, on Election Eve, I can find so little information on any of my 16 choices. I very much dislike voting "blind" - I want to have at least read up on a candidate or an issue before I make my choice. At this point in my life, I do not vote a party-line ticket. However, I feel like that is what I am going to have to do tomorrow if I want to vote for Representatives at all.
No candidate websites with their policy statements. Barely half of them answered the questionnaire sent out by the Town Patch online newspaper - and that had more questions about their hometowns, families, and education than it did about their ideas for government.
I am incredibly frustrated that I feel completely incapable of making an informed decision. And I'm wondering, if getting elected doesn't actually seem to require any campaigning beyond having a voter decide they like the way your name looks on paper, then maybe I should run for State Representative. I mean, throw up a cheap, static, 1-page website and I'd already be miles ahead of my competition....
On second thought, never mind. A wee bit of research shows that NH Reps and Senators get paid a whopping $200 per biennium. And I didn't drop a 0 this time either.
