New Hampshire
NH bill would divide presidential electors by district: 'We want voters to feel their vote counts'
CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire lawmakers are looking to mirror Maine and Nebraska, and make theirs the third state that divides its presidential electors by congressional district in what a top Republican proponent called a bid to give more power to the voters.
Senate Bill 11, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gannon and seven other Republicans, would award a presidential delegate to the winner of each of its two congressional districts and award two more to the winner of the statewide popular vote.
“Congressional district presidential electors shall cast their ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who received the highest number of votes in their respective congressional districts,” Senate Bill 11 reads.
The bill will receive its first committee hearing Tuesday, Fox News Digital has learned.
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“I Voted” stickers sit on the table on the second day of early voting in the 2024 presidential election at the Board of Elections Loop Super Site in Chicago. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Granite State is known for its “First-in-the-nation” primary contest and midnight canvassing on Election Day in the small community of Dixville Notch.
“We want to stay ‘First-in-the-nation’,” Gannon, of Sandown, told Fox News Digital.
“That’s a big, important thing. We want our voters to feel: ‘I go out and vote – my vote counts.’”
Gannon dismissed criticism from state Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, who told WMUR that Republicans should play “fair and square” and claimed state legislature maps are already “very gerrymandered.”
“I think this is yet another example of the Republicans kind of trying to change the system to meet their needs,” she told the outlet.
Gannon disagreed. “She had a statement; ‘they’re trying to steal a vote’ or something – Not the case at all,” he said.
Gannon indicated that if the law were in effect in the contentious 2000 presidential race, the divided electors would’ve benefited Democrats – though Vice President Al Gore took the state under its current winner-take-all system. In 2016, the division would have awarded Donald Trump a lone elector when Hillary Clinton took the state.
“I hope to pick up some Democrat support unless they vote in lockstep. If they’re willing to look at the bill and say ‘jeez, it could benefit either side.’ It’s just going to represent the people more,” he said.
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New Hampshire’s four electors are sworn in by Secretary of State Dave Scanlon, left, as the Electoral College vote takes place in state capitols across the country, in Concord, New Hampshire, on Dec. 17, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
“That’s what we’re all about in New Hampshire, representing the will of the people.”
New Hampshire notably has the largest state legislature in the country at 424 lawmakers. It dwarfs second-place Pennsylvania’s 203-member legislature.
Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Debra Altschiler panned the bill and quipped that if New Hampshire wants to follow Maine’s lead in this respect, there are other more progressive initiatives the legislature should take up.
“This bill is completely out of line with New Hampshire values,” said Altschiller, of Stratham.
“And if we, as New Hampshire, wanted to follow Maine’s lead, then we would have universal free lunch for all students, and we’d have background checks on firearms purchases. But we don’t have that.”
“So we don’t always take our marching orders from other states.”
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A sign outside the state capital building in Concord, New Hampshire, spotlights the state’s treasured position for the past century in holding the lead-off presidential primary. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
In the past three presidential cycles, neighboring Maine has awarded its divided electors 3-1 to the Democratic candidate. Each time, Trump won the one elector from the state’s rural, interior, 2nd congressional district.
The opposite has been true in Nebraska in 2020 and 2024, when President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each scored the single delegate from the Omaha-centric 2nd congressional district. Trump earned the other four delegates – and previous to 2016, all electors were often awarded to the Republican.
With the Republicans holding a 16-8 supermajority in the state Senate, the bill is likely to pass the chamber later this month or in February. The measure would then head to the state House of Representatives, where the GOP also holds a wide majority and where Republican lawmakers will likely be receptive to the legislation.
New Hampshire
FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A pilot was taken to the hospital with injuries Wednesday after a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in southern New Hampshire, authorities said.
Emergency crews found the aircraft upside down in a snow bank in the parking lot of a wooded condominium complex in Nashua Wednesday afternoon.
Police said the pilot was the only person on board and was the only person injured. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
The Velocity V-Twin plane crashed at the Cannongate Condominiums shortly after departing from the nearby Nashua Airport around 2:10 p.m. local time, according to the FAA.
Aerial video from NBC10 Boston showed damage to the roof of one of the condos near the crash site.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
New Hampshire
Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire
NEW YORK (Gray Media) – Thursday night Law enforcement officials confirmed the suspect in last Saturday’s shooting at Brown University was found dead. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man suspected of killing two Brown students and injuring nine, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, NH. Officials believe the 48-year-old former Brown student was also connected to the killing of an MIT professor earlier this week.
Neves Valente was a student in the early 2000s at Brown and a fellow student of Dr. Nuno Loureiro, the MIT professor. His motive was unknown, but university officials said he likely spent a lot of time in the building where he carried out the attack.
A six-day manhunt led law enforcement to a storage unit where they found Neves Valente, who came to the U.S. from Portugal originally on a student visa, eventually receiving a green card to stay in the country. Rhode Island’s Attorney General Peter Neronha said tips from the public were crucial in finally identifying the suspect.
“When you do crack it, you crack it. And that person led us to the car. Which led us to the name. Which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence,” said Neronha.
In response to the tragedy and ensuing investigation, President Donald Trump paused the diversity visa lottery program the suspect used to get a green card. Some 50,000 visas per year are granted to students from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.
Copyright 2025 Gray DC. All rights reserved.
New Hampshire
Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has closed a complaint after finding that Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill did not engage in illegal electioneering.
At issue were a series of emails Liot Hill, a Lebanon Democrat, had sent from her official government account to help the partisan Elias Law Group connect with voters impacted by a new state voting law.
Republican lawmakers said that was an inappropriate use of official resources, threatening to impeach Liot Hill over her correspondence. James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, reported his concerns to the Attorney General’s Office in August.
In August, the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats and progressive causes, represented three visually-impaired plaintiffs who sued New Hampshire officials over the constitutionality of a new law that would tighten photo ID requirements for voters seeking an absentee ballot. That case was recently dismissed by a New Hampshire Superior Court judge.
This week, the Attorney General’s Election Law Unit released its determination that Liot Hill’s emails did not constitute illegal electioneering, in a Dec. 18 letter to MacEachern.
The Election Law Unit said it reviewed five emails from Liot Hill’s official government account that MacEachern had provided.
It found the content of the emails did not meet the state’s definition of electioneering, “because it does not relate in any way to ‘the vote of a voter on any question or office,’ i.e., something to be voted on at an election,” Brendan A. O’Donnell, senior assistant attorney general in the Election Law Unit, said in the letter.
“Moreover, it is not uncommon for elected officials to use their official capacity to take a position on the constitutionality of an enacted law that is being challenged in court,” O’Donnell said.
However, the letter noted that Liot Hill’s emails did raise the risk that its recipients — including two executive branch officials — could interpret her requests for help as commands.
“All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety,” said O’Donnell.
But, he continued, his office did not find in this case that there had been a misuse of position or that the emails otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code.
MacEachern said he still has concerns about Liot Hill, when reached for comment on the Election Law Unit’s findings.
“This report, among others, continues to raise serious questions about Councilor Liot-Hill’s judgement and brazen willingness to push ethical boundaries with her conduct,” he said in an email.
But Liot Hill said the findings “underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks” against her, including the impeachment proceedings Republicans have failed against her.
“I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat,” she said in an email.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
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