Around New England

State Rep Presses Wrong Button, Overrides New Hampshire Governor’s Veto By One Vote

September 13, 2018

A New Hampshire state representative who wanted to uphold a veto by Governor Chris Sununu of a bill likely to increases the cost of electricity to ratepayers pressed the wrong button and ended up being the margin of victory for the override.

New Hampshire Senate Bill 365 requires utilities to pay wood-burning power plants above-market rates. Sununu vetoed it June 19, saying it would increase electricity costs to residents.

But supporters of the measure tried to override the veto, saying it would increase the diversity and capacity of fuel by helping the wood-burning power plants. To accomplish the override, they needed a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the state legislature.

The state Senate easily passed the override, 21-3. But the state House of Representatives vote came in at 226-113 — or exactly two-thirds, without a single vote to spare.

A Republican opponent of the bill said that another Republican “who wanted to sustain the veto pressed the wrong button, but there was nothing that could be done,” according to The Union Leader.

The story does not name the legislator who made the mistake.

Sununu lost two high-profile overrides of his vetoes Thursday — the other one loosened restrictions on qualifying for parole — despite having Republican majorities in both chambers.

Afterwards, he shrugged it off.

“We don’t expect people to fall in line and do only what the leader of the Republican party does,” Sununu said, according to The Union Leader.