If New Hampshire’s state legislators received report cards before summer recess the way students do, you’d expect to see attendance right at the top. Legislator attendance data is just one of the metrics we track closely at Citizens Count, along with issue positions and bill sponsorship. We don’t do this to call legislators out; attendance data tells voters how their elected officials are representing them in Concord. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons a legislator might have to miss a voting day–illness, a family emergency—attendance makes a big difference. So much so, in fact, that individual legislators’ failure to show up to vote sometimes changed which party was in control of the House floor this year.  

 How did state legislators do over all? 

You’ll be pleased to learn that New Hampshire’s legislators have been showing up to cast their votes in record numbers, lately. The 2024 attendance data shows legislators’ average voting attendance in the NH House remained at a record-high 93%, the same number as last year. Prior to that, going all the way back to 1999, House attendance has never gone above 90%. In the state Legislature, bills often pass or fail because of only a few votes (more on that below), so the fact that your legislators (who are essentially volunteers) are showing up in record numbers to vote on bills is an encouraging sign for New Hampshire democracy.  
Republicans and Democrats had roughly equivalent attendance numbers for the two-year session.  
The New Hampshire Senate had a nearly perfect 99% attendance record for the last session, which is fairly typical, given the much smaller size of that body. Laudable as the Senate’s attendance record is, there isn’t much for us to glean from looking at their attendance data, so we’ll focus on the House for the rest of this article. 

Gold stars and demerits 

In any data set there are outliers, and the State House attendance records are no exception. Of the 407 people who served as members of the House between 2023 and 2024, 113 participated in every single roll call vote for the entire two-year session. On the flip side, there were 12 representatives who attended less than 2/3 of the voting days during that time. If you are curious how your representative performed, you can find out by visiting their profile page on our website. You can find your representatives by entering your town at citizenscount.org/elected-officials. 
This year, the county with the highest average participation in roll call votes was Sullivan County at 98%. The lowest was Belknap County with 89%.  

Why it matters 

Articles that “analyze data” might make your eyes glaze over, especially with the summer upon us and state House and Senate primaries not until September 10. Still, like I mentioned earlier, voting attendance often makes the difference between a controversial bill passing or being killed. In 2024, there were four roll call votes that resulted in a perfect tie. Had just one more legislator showed up in Concord on those days, they could have cast a deciding vote.  
Indeed, 22 roll call votes this year passed or failed by just one vote. Some notable examples include: 
    •    HB 601, which would allow the Department of Education to automatically offer free school meals based on Medicaid enrollment. This bill, which was a priority for Democrats, was killed by just one vote.  
    •    HB 1512, which would limit the Education Freedom Account program to budgeted amounts. This bill failed to pass by one vote and was finally killed by two votes. 
    •    HB 1611, which would have established a Child Care Workforce Fund to recruit and retain New Hampshire child care employees, was killed by one vote. 

Their vote makes a difference, and so does yours 

Americans tend to fixate on national politics at the expense of state and local politics, which is a shame, because we all have greater power to effect change in our own “backyard.” Legislators in Concord consider roughly 1,000 bills every year, and each of these has the potential to impact you. With that in mind, check out the elections page on our website. You’ll see profiles for all the candidates for state and federal office who will appear on your ballot in the fall. If your House candidates include current or former state representatives, you'll be able to review their attendance data along with issue positions, voting records, partisanship scores, and more. Of course, a less-than-perfect attendance score needn’t disqualify a candidate, but it might warrant an email or phone call to ask them why they missed votes. You can find your candidates' contact information on their profiles at citizenscount.org/elections.