# NH House Speaker dies of COVID **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789 "2020-12-10T19:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/1 "2020-12-10T19:38:20Z")
Live Free AND Die might be the new state motto. [https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/12/10/n-h-house-speaker-dick-hinch-dies-a-week-after-swearing-in](https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/12/10/n-h-house-speaker-dick-hinch-dies-a-week-after-swearing-in)? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/2 "2020-12-10T20:03:03Z")
“The swearing in of the the 400-member House and 24-member Senate” That’s an excessively large House and too small Senate. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/3 "2020-12-10T20:38:06Z")
I’m sorry he died, and if the photo is representative, he was wearing his mask ineffectively. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/4 "2020-12-10T20:49:30Z")
NH is known for having a completely bizarre and unwieldy system for its House, with districts having varying numbers of members according to their population (up to 11 in some instances according to this link): > **[New Hampshire House of Representatives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_House_of_Representatives)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Minority > The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court, the bicameral legislature of the state of New Hampshire. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 204 legislative districts across the state, created from divisions of the state's counties. On average, each legislator represents about 3,300 residents, which is the smallest lower house representative-to-population ra... No, I don’t understand why either. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/5 "2020-12-11T00:21:43Z")
Using that ratio, the US House would have somewhere around 99,000-100,000 members, depending on how recent the base population figures were. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/6 "2020-12-11T00:30:21Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > NH is known for having a completely bizarre and unwieldy system for its House, with districts having varying numbers of members according to their population… That doesn’t sound so weird to me. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/7 "2020-12-11T00:32:14Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > > > NH is known for having a completely bizarre and unwieldy system for its House, with districts having varying numbers of members according to their population… > > That doesn’t sound so weird to me. Yeah, that just sounds like they modeled it off the US proper. Or, since New Hampshire came first, maybe the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/8 "2020-12-11T00:38:24Z")
No, at the federal level, there must be single member districts. There can’t be districts with varying numbers of members. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/9 "2020-12-11T00:46:46Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > No, at the federal level, there must be single member districts. There can’t be districts with varying numbers of members.@nbsp; At the federal level, the next step down is the state. And the states do have different numbers of representatives based on population. We have the Senate, where each state has 2 representatives, and the House of Representatives, in which each state has a number of representatives in proportion to the state’s population. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/10 "2020-12-11T00:47:04Z")
It’s nothing like the US. I live in NY state where we currently have 27 representatives. I get to vote for one candidate—the one I like best who is running in my district. I can’t vote for anybody else. If my state used the NH House system, I’d be entitled to vote for 27 candidates, each representing the entire state. No state operates this way on the congressional level. I’m not aware of any other states that do this at the state level though there may be some (IL had three per district until about 1980). Some cities do at large voting, which is kind of like this. But NH is really unusual w/regard to states. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/11 "2020-12-11T01:13:20Z")
> [@susan](#): > > he was wearing his mask ineffectively. My friend likes to say “wearing your mask with your nose hanging out is like wearing your pants with your dick hanging out. Might as well not wear it at all!” [![](https://media2.fdncms.com/stranger/imager/u/large/43878680/1591739295-img_5030.jpg) ](https://media2.fdncms.com/stranger/imager/u/large/43878680/1591739295-img_5030.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/12 "2020-12-11T01:17:18Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > My friend likes to say “wearing your mask with your nose hanging out is like wearing your pants with your dick hanging out And in both cases, keeping it in helps prevent spreading disease. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nh-house-speaker-dies-of-covid/927789/13 "2020-12-11T01:31:28Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > At the federal level, the next step down is the state. And the states do have different numbers of representatives based on population. I’m not referring to the number of members a state has in total. I was responding to the comment that New Hampshire’s multi-member districts were the same as the House of Representatives. New Hampshire has multi-member districts in its lower house, with some districts having only one member, and other districts having more than one member. One state district actually has 11 members, according to Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Districts vary in number of seats based on their populations, with the least-populous districts electing only one member and the most populous electing 11. In multi-member districts, voters are allowed to cast as many votes as there are seats to be filled; for instance, in a two-member district, a voter can vote for up to two candidates. Federal law prohibits multi-member districts for the US House of Representatives. Each district may only elect one member.