New Hampshire and Oklahoma Seek Higher School Board Turnout

New Hampshire voters shift school tax decisions to November

New Hampshire voters have moved major school-related decisions from obscure spring dates to the high-turnout November general election.

This change allowed residents in all school districts to vote on a measure to cap local property-tax growth.

The new law, approved earlier this year, sought to limit property-tax increases to the previous year’s amount, adjusted for inflation and new construction. While similar tax-cap measures have historically struggled to gain traction when placed before voters in the spring, the November timing yielded different results.

The measure passed in at least 113 of the 260 communities across the state. Although a 60-percent supermajority was required for the cap to take effect, the proposal received majority support in the vast majority of New Hampshire communities, according to reporting by ocpathink.org.

The impact of low turnout

State Representative Ross Berry, a Republican who authored the legislation, argued that the shift in timing corrected a fundamental flaw in the previous election cycle. He suggested that the small number of people participating in March elections did not represent the broader electorate.

“On these obscure March elections, they’ve all failed because the people that show up there are all self-interested,” Berry said. “It did kind of prove the theory of the case, which was: These people in March are not representative of the broader electorate.”

Berry noted that the property tax cap received an average of 59 percent "yes" votes statewide, even during a year when Republicans lost many other races. He highlighted a discrepancy in his own "ruby red" hometown, where the community continued to vote Republican despite Democrats gaining seats in the state House.

In his hometown, Berry observed that four out of five school board members are Democrats, despite the area’s Republican voting patterns. He attributed this to the low participation rates in non-partisan school board elections.

“It’s not local control when 9 percent of the voters are voting,” Berry said. “That’s not local control. That’s just whoever’s showing up.”

Oklahoma eyes similar reforms

The debate over election timing is not confined to New Hampshire. In Oklahoma, Governor-elect Mike Mazzei is advocating for moving school-board elections to dates with higher voter participation.

Currently, Oklahoma holds school-board primary elections on the second Tuesday in February and general elections on the first Tuesday of April. These dates often see extremely low engagement from the public.

Research conducted by Americans for Prosperity–Oklahoma found that turnout for the April 2, 2024, school-board elections averaged only 6 percent. In some districts, turnout was reported at less than 1 percent, while only one district saw participation exceed 25 percent.

By contrast, 64 percent of eligible Oklahoma voters participated in the November 2024 general election. Mazzei argued that because school boards control curriculum, budgets, and teacher administration, these decisions require meaningful participation from the families and taxpayers they serve.

Oklahoma lawmakers may consider shifting these election dates during the 2027 legislative session.

Candidates face calls to disclose party affiliations on ballots

Beyond the calendar, there is a growing push to change how candidates are identified on the ballot. In both New Hampshire and Oklahoma, school-board candidates do not currently disclose their party affiliations, as the races are designated as nonpartisan.

Mazzei has called for requiring candidates to publicly identify their partisan affiliations. He suggested that parents should be informed of the “worldview” of the individuals seeking to lead local schools.

A January 2021 study by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, which reviewed data from four states including Oklahoma, found that the majority of voters in a typical school board election are unlikely to have children. This demographic reality often influences who participates in these local contests.

Election Type (Oklahoma)	Average Voter Turnout
April 2024 School-Board Elections	6%
November 2024 General Election	64%

As the 2027 legislative session approaches in Oklahoma, the central question remains whether changing the date and the transparency of candidate affiliations will fundamentally alter the leadership of local school districts.

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