Using This Site
What the tabs hold, what a timestamp claims and what it does not, how to follow a bill, and how to tell us we are wrong.
On this page
Cite this page
This guide is written by Granite Record from the official pages it links to. Where a citation allows only one source, cite the official page for the part you rely on. The date below is the day the page was read.
- MLA
- “Using This Site.” Granite Record, https://graniterecord.org/guides/using-this-site. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.
- APA
- Granite Record. (n.d.). Using This Site. Retrieved 19 Oct. 2026, from https://graniterecord.org/guides/using-this-site
- Chicago
- Granite Record. “Using This Site.” Accessed 19 Oct. 2026. https://graniterecord.org/guides/using-this-site.
- BibTeX
@misc{guides-using-this-site, title = {Using This Site}, howpublished = {Granite Record}, url = {https://graniterecord.org/guides/using-this-site}, note = {Accessed 19 Oct. 2026} }
What This Site Is
Granite Record is an index of the New Hampshire General Court's own record: 33,717 bills across 19 two-year terms, back to 1989, with what each bill does, who sponsored it, when it was heard, how it was voted on, and where in the recording that happened. It is built by machine from the General Court's published files, and this page was last built on October 19, 2026.
Older terms hold less, and every bill's page says what its term carries and what is not on the site yet.
How to Find a Bill, a Member or a Town
The Search button in the header, drawn as a magnifier, finds legislators, committees, towns and this site's own pages: typing Litchfield offers both the town and the representative of that name. Anything else goes to the bill search, which takes a bill number, several separated by commas, or words from a title, sponsor or committee. It covers one term, or all of them at once, and narrows by committee, topic, prime sponsor, status, bill type and floor vote day. Every sitting member and every committee has a page of their own.
What a Bill's Page Holds
- Summary — the General Court's own analysis, the current status, and a narrative of what has happened, in order, with each action linked to the journal or calendar that recorded it.
- Bill Text — the text and its amendments, where more than one was published.
- Votes — every roll call this record holds, by member, from 1999 on, and each voice or division vote on the bill, a division with its count. A voice or division vote has no member-by-member record to show, because none was made.
- Hearings — each meeting that took the bill up, with its day, time and room, and the recording where there is one, opened at the moment the bill was taken up.
- Reports — what the committee recommended and why, in the committee's own words, and the Governor's message where a bill was vetoed.
- Sponsors — the member who filed the bill and those who signed on to it.
- Documents — the official pages this all comes from.
- Related, where there is any — bills and amendments that share most of its language: the same text filed in another year, or carried into another bill or an amendment to one, with what became of it. Found by comparing the texts, so a match can be missed.
What a Timestamp Claims
Not all of them claim the same thing, and the page says which.
- Where the chair can be heard taking the bill up, that is the time.
- Where a roll call has a clock time in the official record, that is used.
- Otherwise the time is estimated from where the bill falls in the recording and marked approximate. It can be several minutes out.
- Where no moment has been found, the page says so and offers the whole recording.
Captions are never quoted here. Automatic transcription renders "HB 1381" as "HP 1381" often enough that a quotation would be a transcription error wearing the clothes of a citation. The timestamp is the claim. The recording is the evidence.
Reading the Shorthand
| OTP | Ought to Pass: a motion to pass the bill |
|---|---|
| OTPA | Ought to Pass with Amendment: a motion to pass the bill with the committee's amendment (the docket also writes OTP/A or OTP/AM) |
| ITL | Inexpedient to Legislate: a motion to kill the bill |
| IS | Interim Study: a motion to have the committee study the subject after the session; the bill itself goes no further this term |
| Retain | Retained: a House committee keeps the bill through the fall and reports it in the second year of the term |
| MA / MF | Motion Adopted / Motion Failed |
| VV | Voice vote: no count and no names |
| DV | Division vote: counted, names not recorded |
| RC | Roll call: each member recorded by name |
| CC | Consent Calendar: the committee's recommendation, to pass, to kill or to send to interim study, adopted with the whole calendar in one vote, without floor debate |
| OT3rdg | Ordered to a third reading |
| HJ / SJ | House or Senate Journal: the chamber's own record of the day, cited by issue and sometimes page |
| -FN | Fiscal note: an estimate of what the bill would cost |
| -A | Appropriation: the bill contains one |
| -LOCAL | Local fiscal impact: the bill may change what counties, cities, towns or school districts spend or collect |
Following a Bill
A bill still moving through the General Court carries an RSS feed, and so does every sitting member, every current committee, and every topic. The Follow control on a record's page gives the address where there is one. There are also feeds for the record's newest actions and for hearings coming up. A bill's feed ends once the bill is settled. There is no email option yet. No account, no email address, nothing to leak.
How to Report an Error
Every bill's, legislator's and committee's page carries a Report a problem button beside its heading, because this will be wrong somewhere. It sends nothing that identifies you, which also means we cannot reply. For an answer, or for an error on these explanatory pages, write to [email protected].