New Hampshire

New Hampshire concentrates elections but disperses power. The Governor is the only official elected statewide, there is no lieutenant governor, and unlike most states the Attorney General is appointed (by the Governor, with the Council’s consent) rather than elected. The Secretary of State and State Treasurer are not chosen by voters at all; the legislature elects them.

The twist is the Executive Council. Five councilors, each elected from a geographic district, sit alongside the Governor and must approve much of what the executive branch does: senior appointments, judicial nominations, state contracts above a threshold, and pardons. The Governor cannot act alone on these, a hostile Council can block nominees and spending, so the office is far weaker than a governorship with a free hand over the cabinet.

Because there is no lieutenant governor, the line of succession runs to the President of the State Senate, then the Speaker of the House.

The legislature is called the General Court. It is bicameral but wildly lopsided: a 24-seat State Senate and a 400-seat House of Representatives, 424 members in all. That House is one of the largest legislative chambers in the world, roughly one representative for every 3,400 residents, so a member may personally know much of their district.

This is the purest "citizen legislature" in the country. The state constitution fixes legislator pay at $200 for the two-year term ($100 a year, plus mileage), so essentially no one serves for the money, members are retirees, professionals, students, and volunteers who keep day jobs. The General Court meets in annual sessions beginning in early January with no hard constitutional deadline, though it customarily wraps up by mid-year.

A bill is introduced in either chamber, sent to committee for a public hearing (New Hampshire takes its open hearings seriously, almost anyone can show up and testify), then reported to the floor. After passing one chamber it goes to the other; a committee of conference settles differences before final passage.

The sheer size of the House shapes everything: floor sessions are huge, and committee recommendations carry real weight simply because 400 members can’t all dig into every bill. Once a bill passes both chambers it goes to the Governor, who can sign it, veto it, or let it become law unsigned. The General Court can override a veto with a two-thirds vote of each chamber. New Hampshire has no citizen ballot initiative, voters cannot enact statutes directly, and proposed constitutional amendments must clear the legislature (or a periodic constitutional convention) before going to the ballot.

On paper the Governor leads the executive branch; in practice the office is hemmed in. The Governor has no line-item veto, so a spending bill must be accepted or rejected whole. Major appointments, judicial nominations, larger state contracts, and clemency all require the consent of the elected Executive Council, the Governor genuinely shares executive power rather than commanding it.

The Governor can veto legislation, call special sessions, and exercise emergency powers, but the two-year term means a governor faces voters constantly and has little runway to push an agenda before the next campaign. Clemency (pardons and commutations) follows the same pattern as everything else: the Governor needs the Executive Council’s approval to grant it.

New Hampshire does not elect its judges. The Governor nominates them and the Executive Council confirms; once seated, judges serve until a mandatory retirement age of 70 rather than facing reelection. The Supreme Court sits at the top, above the Superior Court (the main trial court for major civil and criminal cases) and the Circuit Court (district, family, and probate matters). The appoint-and-retain-to-70 model is meant to insulate judges from electoral politics.