New Hampshire voters have long valued their independent-mindedness by avoiding registering with either major political party except for the day of a primary. 

Under a proposed bill, however, the state’s largest group of voters – the more than 386,000 who in 2024 chose not to declare any party affiliation – might soon be limited in how they can participate in primary elections.

A bill from House Republicans, including local Rep. Jose Cambrils from Loudon, would prohibit undeclared voters from changing their affiliation the same day as the primary to cast their ballot.

The longstanding practice for undeclared voters is to register with a specific party at the polls during a primary and then switch their registration back right after voting. House Bill 172 would repeal the laws that allow that, making it so undeclared voters would need to change their party by the regular deadline – which is months in advance – to register to vote in a primary. It would still allow new and first-time voters to register on the day of the election.

John Sellers, the bill’s prime sponsor from Bristol, said the idea of a primary is to let members of each party select their candidate, not members of the opposite party seeking to skew results.

“What happens is … on primary day, maybe the other party has a strong candidate so the person in that party will actually literally go and register for the other party,” Sellers said. “And they’re undeclared, so they might normally vote one way but they decided on this primary to vote another way. It actually skews who actually gets elected to go forward for the general.”

He compared it to baseball.

“This would be no different than the Red Sox playing the Yankees, and the Red Sox telling the Yankees, ‘Hey, by the way, you’re going to use this pitcher today against us,’” Sellers said, “and you wouldn’t want that.”

People who opposed the bill said it’d hinder their ability to conduct research on candidates and make an informed decision, no matter which party they end up choosing.

Dale Vincent, a Concord resident, said she felt frustrated that lawmakers might “cut off” the biggest swath of New Hampshire’s voting population because they are undecided. She’s been an undeclared voter for about 40 years.

“I have prided myself on studying candidates in both parties, and sometimes there’s a candidate for an office that’s really outstanding in one party and sometimes in a different party,” Vincent said. “I feel that we should be allowed to make that choice at the polling place and not have to sign up blindly.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.