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
2 killed, 1 seriously injured in NH crash
Two people are dead and another person has serious injuries following a crash Friday in Rumney, New Hampshire.
The Rumney Fire Department says it responded to Route 25 just after 1:30 p.m. for a motor vehicle crash with entrapment. Crews, including from Plymouth-Fire Rescue and the Wentworth Fire Department, arrived on scene to find two vehicles in the road that appeared to have been involved in a head-on collision.
The driver from one vehicle was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, the fire department said. The driver and a passenger in the second vehicle were both pronounced dead on scene.
The victims’ names have not been released at this time.
Route 25 was closed for approximately five hours for an on-scene investigation and clean up, the fire department said.
It’s unclear what caused the fatal crash. The Rumney Police Department is investigating.
New Hampshire
Fireball spotted streaking over towns in southeast New Hampshire: video
An eagle-eyed photographer captured the moment a shining fireball cut across the sky in southeast New Hampshire early Saturday evening.
Rob Wright, a professional photographer based in New Hampshire, shared dash camera footage of the suspected meteor — which he called a “bright green boldie” — blazing straight downwards while he was cruising through Portsmouth.
“That was one of the best I’ve seen and likely the best I’ve ever caught on camera,” Wright boasted on Facebook.
Wright was approaching a traffic circle in the coastal town when a pulsing yellow light appeared in the sky. It tracked downwards in a straight line and released a brighter spurt of light before disappearing entirely, all in the span of eight seconds, according to the video.
Others in Nashua and Londonderry, both located southwest of Portsmouth and closer to the Massachusetts border, told WMUR that they also saw the suspected meteor.
Several other highlighted sightings around the same time in Dover, Bedford, Rindge, Hooksett and Jaffrey, which are all within a 90-mile radius of Portsmouth, according to the American Meteor Society.
Locals who follow Wright’s work reported seeing the fireball, too. One woman who also lives in Portsmouth commented that she “thought it must have been a firework.”
It’s unclear what exactly the fireball was.
Meteorites present similarly to a fireball when they’re plummeting from orbit — but leave a more obvious impact.
In August, a 3-foot meteor splintered in the air while it was flying over Georgia and left fragments scattered all over Newton County. The explosion caused a sonic boom equivalent to 20 tons of TNT exploding at once.
Pieces of the meteor were found all over the county, including one that crashed through the roof of a home.
Over the summer in 2024, a meteor disintegrated about 30 miles above Midtown Manhattan. The force shook parts of New York City, rattling midday commuters.
New Hampshire
Firefighters battle large blaze at home near NH’s Loon Mountain
Firefighters from multiple northern New Hampshire communities helped battle a blaze at a home near Loon Mountain on Saturday night.
Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post Sunday morning that they responded to the fire on Crooked Mountain Road in Lincoln around 7 p.m. Several other area departments also responded and helped shuttle water to the scene from a site in nearby Woodstock.
No one was home at the time and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze. Fire crews cleared the scene around 4 a.m.
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