HB1234

Provided in-person at public hearing: As amended by the replace-all amendment introduced this morning, HB1234 seeks to identify incompatible offices for purposes of school district elections and prohibit certain combinations of offices from being sought and then unable to be held, simultaneously. The NH Secretary of State is aware that this bill was being brought forward and confirmed via email on 2/17 AM that he is in support. HB1234 will put school district election incompatibility of offices statute [671:18] in line with that of municipal election statute [669:7 that prohibits certain combinations of municipal offices from being held simultaneously]. HB1234 will prevent candidates from seeking election to, and possibly winning an office in which they cannot serve. As currently written, NH statute disallows an elected candidate from serving in incompatible offices, but does not preclude a candidate from running for incompatible offices by filing a declaration of candidacy, and their name appearing on the ballot. Voters need to be confident that the person they elect will not thereafter be disqualified from serving- leaving the governing bodies of municipalities and school districts to appoint individuals to serve instead, until the next election. HB1234 protects the rights of voters, clarifies for candidates which school district positions are incompatible before they put their name on the ballot, and eliminates the need for governing bodies to appoint individuals to serve in offices when an elected member is determined ineligible.

I have been the Merrimack School District Clerk. for 30 years. As School District Clerk, I asked my state representatives to add language to RSA 671 so clarify incompatible elected positions during School District elections. Though we hold our local elections on the same day as the town, School Elections are run by RSA 671, not RSA 669. Twenty years ago, Merrimack voters passed a new Town Charter that eliminated our Municipal Budget Committee and voters passed a petitioned warrant article to establish a School District Budget Committee per RSA 32:14,I.d. There are only a few School Districts that have a School District (only) Budget Committee. Per RSA 32:15, V, a School Board member cannot also serve as a member-at-large of the Budget Committee and while RSA 669:7 says you cannot file to run at the same time for two incompatible offices, there is currently nothing about incompatible offices or filing to run for 2 incompatible offices in the same election in RSA 671. In both 2024 and 2025, I had candidates file to run for both School Board and School District Budget Committee in the same election on the same ballot. I called the Secretary of State's office for direction and was told that there is nothing in RSA 671 preventing the filing and if the candidate won both seats, the candidate would get to chose which seat to be sworn into and the other seat would be declared open to be filled by the body affected. The good news was that in neither year did the candidate win both seats. So, I asked my state representatives to file an LSR to add language about incompatible offices as well as filing to run for 2 incompatible offices in the same election to RSA 671 which this bill does. I am in support of this legislation and I want to thank my state representatives for filing it. Please contact me if you wish to discuss this further. Thank you.