Dover seeks special election for NH House seat after death of Rep. Hoy Robert Menear III

DOVER — City councilors are requesting a special election be held March 12 for the Strafford County District 11 seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, which was recently vacated following the death of Rep. Hoy Robert Menear III.

The council on Wednesday unanimously approved sending the request to Gov. Chris Sununu and the state’s Executive Council. Menear, a Democrat from Lee, was one of three state representatives elected from the district and served on the House’s State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee.

District 11 comprises Dover's Ward 4 (just one of the city's six voting wards) along with the towns of Lee and Madbury.

“As the council is aware, Ward 4 was redistricted recently to become part of a legislative district for the House of Representatives in New Hampshire that includes two other communities, in addition to the residents of Ward 4,” City Manager Michael Joyal Jr. stated Wednesday. “There are three House of Representatives members who are elected from that multi-jurisdictional district, if you will. Unfortunately, one of the representatives has recently passed away. (We) certainly express sympathies for his family.”

Dover city attorney Joshua Wyatt said state statute requires special elections for vacant New Hampshire House seats occurring in the last year of a two-year term to be held no later than March 15.

“The process depends … on the affected community making an actual request to the Governor and (Executive) Council to hold a special election,” he said. “If a request is not made, a special election will not be held. There are various timelines in the statute for if and how it will occur and that is because … once you get too deep into the second year of that biennium, you’re bumping up against the deadlines for the next election, which they start in June.”

The requested special election date of March 12 would occur the same day as Lee’s town elections.

“There is a provision in the statute that says you can align it that way with an already scheduled election if, in this situation, at least two of the three affected communities make that request,” Wyatt said.

The request states that if Sununu and the Executive Council don’t approve the March 12 date, any date prior to March 15 should be selected.

Joyal estimated the special election being conducted in Ward 4 wouldn’t cost more than $2,000.

“We have to incur expenses for printing ballots, programming the election counting machines and there are election workers that also will be paid,” Joyal said. There is some brief set-up expenses before and after the election.”

Potential primaries would be determined the day Sununu and the Executive Council designate the district’s special election, Wyatt said.

The other two District Strafford 11 state representatives are Democrats Thomas Southworth of Dover and Janet Wall of Madbury.

The empty district seat is one of four New Hampshire House of Representatives vacancies, along with positions in Hillsborough District 3, Coos District 1 and Coos District 6.

Republicans hold a slight majority in the state House of Representatives, with 198 members to the Democrats’ 195 members after Menear’s death. There are three independents serving in the chamber.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover seeks special election for NH House seat following death