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Which NH county has the most active representatives?

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Each year Citizens Count tallies several measures that can be used to evaluate legislator activity in Concord:

  • Attendance on voting days (total number of voting days attended in Concord)
  • Attendance for roll call votes (total number of votes cast on each bill)
  • Partisanship (using the "Party Unity Score" – learn more here)
  • Number of prime-sponsored bills
  • Number of prime-sponsored bills that became law

So how does each county stack up? Here’s the rundown.

Best attendance by day: Coos County (worst: Belknap County)

On average representatives from Coos County attended the most voting days in Concord this year – even though the drive is almost three hours for some! Here are the counties ranked by the percentage of voting days, on average, attended by representatives:

    1) Coos County (95.7%)
    2) Grafton County (95.4%)
    3) Sullivan County (93.4%
    4) Cheshire County (93.2%)
    5) Merrimack County (92.5%)
    6) Carroll County (92.4%)
    7) Hillsborough County (92.0%)
    8) Rockingham County (91.4%)
    9) Strafford County (90.0%)
    10) Belknap County (87.6%)

Best attendance by vote: Grafton County (worst: Belknap County)

There’s another way to count attendance in Concord: how many individual votes a legislator was present for. Some days have more votes than others, and sometimes legislators leave early and miss out on some votes. That means attendance for each vote is just as significant as attendance by day.

On average representatives from Grafton County cast the most votes in Concord this year. Here are the counties ranked by the percentage of votes attended by representatives:

    1) Grafton County (93.63%)
    2) Sullivan County (93.60%)
    3) Coos County (92.1%)
    4) Cheshire County (90.9%)
    5) Merrimack County (90.0%)
    6) Carroll County (88.8%)
    7) Hillsborough County (88.7%)
    8) Rockingham County (87.7%)
    9) Strafford County (86.8%)
    10) Belknap County (83.0%)

Highest “Party Unity Score”: Cheshire County (lowest: Coos County)

As noted in an earlier article by Citizens Count, "party unity" – the partisanship measure used on this website – is not necessarily a bad thing. Still, party loyalty is a measure to consider when looking at a legislator’s activity.

In 2019 Cheshire County, on average, had legislators with the highest partisanship scores. Coos County had the lowest.

    1) Cheshire County (96.9%)
    2) Strafford County (96.8%)
    3) Hillsborough County (96.1%)
    4) Grafton County (95.8%)
    5) Merrimack County (95.4%)
    6) Sullivan County (94.7%)
    7) Rockingham County (94.1%)
    8) Belknap County (93.2%)
    9) Carroll County (93.0%)
    10) Coos County (92.5%)

Most prime-sponsored bills: Carroll County (fewest: Cheshire County)

Legislators can be the prime sponsor of a bill, which means they are the legislator primarily responsible for authoring the bill. Legislators can also co-sponsor bills, which means they sign on to support a bill that is prime-sponsored by another legislator.

At Citizens Count we tally the number of bills prime-sponsored by each legislator. On average, representatives from Carroll County prime-sponsored the most bills this year.

    1) Carroll County (2.9 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    2) Merrimack County (2.4 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    3) Strafford County (1.8 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    4) Rockingham County (1.8 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    5) Grafton County (1.7 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    6) Belknap County (1.6 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    7) Sullivan County (1.3 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    8) Coos County (1.1 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    9) Hillsborough County (1.1 prime-sponsored bills per representative)
    10) Cheshire County (1.0 prime-sponsored bills per representative)

Most prime-sponsored bills that became law: Carroll County (fewest: Cheshire County)

When it comes to how many of those prime-sponsored bills became law, Carroll County still led the pack with the average bills per legislator.

    1) Carroll County (1.1 bills per representative became law)
    2) Grafton County (0.9 bills per representative became law)
    3) Merrimack County (0.8 bills per representative became law)
    4) Coos County (0.7 bills per representative became law)
    5) Sullivan County (0.7 bills per representative became law)
    6) Rockingham County (0.5 bills per representative became law)
    7) Belknap County (0.4 bills per representative became law)
    8) Strafford County (0.3 bills per representative became law)
    9) Hillsborough County (0.3 bills per representative became law)
    10) Cheshire County (0.3 bills per representative became law)

Are you wondering how your town’s legislators stack up on these measures? Find your elected officials and view their profiles to find all of these measures at the individual level.

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