Perhaps nothing exemplifies New Hampshire so much as the local town meeting. However, as of 2007, only one-third of the state’s residents lived in a town with a “traditional” town meeting; one third live in municipalities where a city council has governing authority and one third live in communities that have adopted SB2 or another form of the “official ballot” form of governance which replaces town meeting with a ballot process.

 

The larger towns in New Hampshire have been most likely to adopt SB2. The 59 towns that had adopted SB2 by 2007 had an average of 7,800 people per municipality, while the non SB2 towns had an average size of about 2,700 people per municipality.

 

The faster growing towns in New Hampshire have been most likely to adopt SB2. The 59 SB2 towns that had adopted SB2 by 2007 grew by almost 1,000 people per year from 1990 to 2000, three times faster than the towns that did not adopt SB2.

 

The chart shows that the SB2 towns are concentrated in seacoast and southern New Hampshire.

 

2007 Official Ballot Towns

(Source: New Hampshire Department of Revenue)

 

Allenstown Alstead Alton Amherst Ashland Atkinson Barrington Bennington Bethlehem Canaan Candia Carroll Charlestown Conway Danbury Danville Deerfield Epping Epsom Exeter

Gilford Goffstown Grafton Hampstead Hampton Hampton Falls Hooksett Hudson Kensington Kingston  Litchfield Littleton  Londonderry Merrimack Milford  Milton       New Boston   New Hampton  New Ipswich Newfields

Newmarket Newport  Newton  North Hampton Pelham Plaistow  Raymond   Rindge Rye  Salem Sandown  Seabrook   Sunapee Swanzey  Wakefield   Weare  Winchester Windham  Wolfeboro